Home and Sickness

I am not even sure the last time I blogged, but without a doubt it's been a while and so much has happened. We moved!!!!! It was a close move, about 10 miles into town and we're so happy to be here and are starting to get settled and unpacked. We had initially planned to buy the house we were living in, but it became clear that it was not the home for us. It was an older house, and although there was an addition (large kitchen and huge master bedroom) the older part of the house just had so many issue's that had to be fixed and it would have just cost us too much. The owners wanted to sell, so we were able to find a really nice rental in town, the rent is cheaper, the house is newer, is updated as far as windows, has solid doors, insulation is well THERE, it's a bit smaller, but just fits our family so much better! We truly love it and are so happy to be here. It's closer to town and post, so we're saving fuel, saving on utilities. I am so thankful that I decided to have us look at this house. It was listed as a 3 bedroom, but thankfully it's actually a 4! Has a fully finished basement (which is where the 4th bedroom/Jacobs' is!) so we have a beautiful family room that is absolutely huge and will allow our family to hang out there together, which will be something new, because over the years I've not hung out in the family room for various reasons. In Germany, it was just such a mess all the time, it was really a storage room so in the winter it was so cold although we had a heater, I just did not enjoy being down there. Chad didn't have the kids keep it clean, so it was a HUGE stress factor to me. In our last house, it was in the unfinished basement, which was sticky, hot, cold, smelled musty...it was a true unfinished basement (although the owners had started to finish it, they did NOT get far). This one is truly finished and well it's pretty, comfortable, we have an area for the couch's, tv, as well as our other table is down there so the kids can do their school work, we can do puzzles, play board games, etc there's plenty of room for the kids toy shelf and toy box, our beautiful antique organ is down there. The owners were definitely in the midst of finishing up details (trim) but those are details and they do not take away the functionality of the room.
Jacob's room was probably made initially to be a storage room, but they built a closet in it, so we laid a rug down in there that we had, moved the wall locker they had in there, into the hall that leads back to the laundry area and bathroom. There's a shower and toilet (unfortunately no sink) which is nice for Jacob and for when any of us are down there. No door, but we have a curtain up for privacy, then the laundry area, which is nice and bright, which is a big change from the other house we just moved from.
On our moving day, we woke up to Olivia having diarrhea and vomiting and just feeling miserable. So I loaded my van up and her and I came into the new house. I did as much packing as I possibly could in our 2 days notice that we had this house, so off to the new house where I met my parents and aunt and showed them our new house and then I did my best to keep Olivia comfortable. Olivia was sick for about 10 days. First it was the stomach bug, then proceeded to get mouth ulcers, which Jacob also ended up with, and then I ended up with. I was able to get the kids some magic mouthwash and that numbed their mouth and just helped them feel better. I was told they were from a virus. Thankfully they were pretty well healed up by the time I came down with it. Noah had a day of a stomach bug, and Emma had 1 evening of a stomach bug, both of them also said 1 day they had a sore throat, but thankfully no one else ended up with the virus that gave the horrible mouth ulcers. I have to say that going 5 days without eating is not enjoyable. I had a drs apt on Tuesday and was given my own magic mouthwash, some cough syrup for my horrible cough. After a couple more days I was finally able to eat, and my mouth started to feel better.
I can not tell you how much I've seen the Lord watching over us. God has blessed me with helpful older boys who even when they don't always feel 100%, when mom feels like death, they step up and help with the other little ones and do what needs to be done.
Over those 2 weeks of us being sick, I didn't get a lot unpacked, so we're now working hard to get this house in order and make it feel like HOME. We are going to be putting up our Christmas decorations up this week. Not rushing Thanksgiving by, just love Christmas as well and enjoy having everything put up as soon as possible, especially since Thanksgiving's a week later this year than most years. Once I have the house put together and decorated, I'll take pictures and share our lovely home.