A T T H E P A R K ' S

For the last year or so JP and I have been praying more intentionally about our future. We've been keeping an open mind about possible schooling opportunities, living situations, and growing our family. In preparation for the unknown we've been downsizing quite a bit lately. I would even venture to say we've started a journey towards minimalism. The term minimalism has various definitions and misconceptions, but one key idea of minimalism for me is simply to remove what isn't adding value to your life to make room for stuff that is. For us, that means less clutter and more time and energy focused on what really matters to us. We want to design our lives with intention. source The kickstarter of this decluttering process for us has been all of my medical issues. My infertility (I'll share more about that in another post) has made me aware of everything I put on my body and in my body. I've been living a gluten/dairy/egg free diet for a few years now but ...

As some of you may or may not know, JP and I have been on a three year journey to become parents to a sweet little babe. We've prayed, hoped, and dreamt. We've experienced pregnancy, loss, tumors, and infertility. At times, life has been incredibly painful but God is so gracious to us. One of the biggest lessons we've learned thus far is letting go and trusting. Letting go of our plans and embracing God's plan, and believing that God knows what is best for us. He is teaching us, day by day, what it means to wait on Him. If this isn't perfect timing (!) KLove's scripture of the day is this:  "Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD." Psalm 27:14 He's a good father, and perfect in all of His ways. Though none of us want to endure suffering, it is in those "valley" or "desert" times that Jesus takes us deeper in our relationship with Him. Before you ask, the answer is no w...

This year we decided to keep things minimal with our Christmas decorations and that included not getting a tree. In the past, we've driven out into the woods and we've cut down our own trees but this go around we just really wanted a simple, hassle-free holiday. In fact, we started the simplicity last year when I downsized our decorations from six bins to two bins! This year we downsized again from two to one bin! Now don't get me wrong, I love having a Christmas tree. Gazing at the tree in the dark is so relaxing and I love seeing the ornaments displayed and reminiscing about the past holidays and family traditions. We haven't shared much on the blog about our future plans and for now are keeping things a bit under wraps until we make some more final decisions. BUT, we will be downsizing even more in the next few months when we put our house on the market, so we just felt like keeping things simple this year was the best decision for us. Hope you enjoy the tour and we...

It seems that this year flew by faster than previous years and I didn't get around to posting like I had wanted...so I'm making up for it now. Photo overload of the last five months below. AUGUST As you read in the previous post here , we installed the new kitchen appliances. The night before my birthday, JP took me on a camera shopping spree and said I'd need a camera for the next day. In the morning, he surprised me with a helicopter tour around the cascade mountains for my 32nd birthday!! With so many fires in the area, the air was a little thick but when we rose above the smoke...wow. Later that afternoon, my parents who were hiking Brokentop that morning came over for lunch after their hike. JP and I were literally flying over the mountain just a few hours before they were climbing it! We went on a family vacation to Sunriver with my parents, my brother and sister in law and their kiddos, and the two dogs. This is one of my favorite photo...

Let me start by first apologizing for my lack of posts these last six months. Life has been clamorous to say the least.  We've said yes to some things and unfortunately the blog has been put on the back burner...but I'm hoping to change that in the new year!  There is much to share so keep an eye out for a follow up "catch up" post. In the meantime, we updated our kitchen appliances!  It might not sound exciting to you, but we've wanted to update ever since we purchased our home in 2009. If you click the "Home Tour" link on the right sidebar, you'll see what our kitchen looked like when we purchased and then after we painted.  Here are the photos pre our recent update. When we first purchased our home, a refrigerator was not included. Once we purchased and installed our stainless steel fridge, the rest of the appliances were mismatched. And let's be honest, it drove me a little crazy. So this August, we upgraded and I'm so g...