Counting Blessings | A Heart in Two Places

Moving to a new place, something I'm experiencing for the first time, can be hard, and even depressing.
But it can also be full of adventure, new starts, growth, and beauty.

Tomorrow will be a month since we made the move to Charlottesville from Pittsburgh.

Loves and Encouragement | The week in review and looking forward.

Sunday is technically the start of the week, but why? To me, it is the end. The day of rest, the soaking in quiet moments and God at the end of the week to prepare for the next. So I'm going to start posting weekly reviews on Sundays as a way to reflect and grow. In a new place, it seems like weeks are full of just so much new. I need a way to process it all and make it mean something. So I'll be posting the highlights of each week right here, and sometimes I'll include low lights, but I'm not trying to focus on negativity. I think my family will appreciate reading these things, too.


What I loved this week: 

1. Finding an affordable gym. I plan to post more on this later, but just when we thought we would go broke if we joined a gym around here, a wonderful friend filled us in on an affordable little fitness center. I started a 12 week training program and just feel so much better when I get myself active most days of the week.

2. Cooking and Baking. I really started planning meals this week and sticking with them, which is helping us spend less money so far (I think). Also, I've continued my unending journey of finding healthy ways to bake delicious treats. Somewhat successful so far. Recipes to come!

3. Breakfasts with Nick. Last week Nick had his breakfast provided most mornings, so I snoozed a bit longer. This week, I decided to get up and spend breakfasts and coffee with him before he went to work. Definitely worth the earlier wake up time!

Because it was life, and I decided to live it.

Today I had this moment that I thought would take a lot longer to happen.

I had a busy day. Typically, I have to think hard to figure out something to do with my day (currently unemployed until the school year starts with a husband that is currently working 10 hours a day). 

But today was different. Today I had to do laundry, go to the gym, go to an interview,and go grocery shopping all before 2pm. Let me explain why that would be hard for me- doing laundry actually means that I have to leave my house and go to a laundromat, my interview was at 11:30, and I wanted to grocery shop but knew I couldn't anytime after 1pm just in case I cut close to getting home past 2pm which is when my husband would need the car. I also really wanted to go to the gym. 

So while my laundry was doing its thing, I went to the gym which took longer than I thought. I then rushed back to the laundromat, folded clothes, hurried home, got ready for the interview in less than 20 minutes (seriously) and arrived at the interview place.

The actual interview was wonderful. It was with a teaching agency that just helps connect candidates with private schools, and the people were wonderful, helpful, and hopeful! After the interview, I promptly went to Whole Foods to get a few necessary things.

This is where the moment happens- I am on my way out and I see the coffee stand and I get myself some delicious blueberry iced tea. While walking to my car in the Virginia heat and iced tea in hand, I actually find myself excited that I am where I am. 

I was excited to move, sure. But since I've been here...let's just say it hasn't been easy. I think subconsciously I was trying not to love it so that I could save all my love for going back home eventually (and make that a fast "eventually," please).

Apartment Warming Life

I say "Apartment Warming Life" because my life has literally consisted of fixing up this new little apartment every day. There are a few things I've learned in the process:

1. Bed Bath and Beyond is the worst store to try to push a cart through (I may have hit into people/ objects more than a few times).

2. HomeGoods is one of God's greatest creations in the apartment/ home realm. I got some of the cutest things there (and will most likely continue to), and will include pictures of them.

3. Redecorating and reorganizing hurts my back. Ouch. 

Now, here is another list- things I'm loving in my new apartment:

Home.

It has been just over one week since we've moved, our apartment is (almost) set up completely, and most days I don't even know what I feel!

Moving is a strange thing- leaving everything you know for this brand new place- it's all exciting and at the same time it feels like your being ripped away from what you love, and put in this position where you really can't get back to it, at least not on a regular basis. At least that's what it feels like for me.

I miss a lot of things about home. I miss the convenience of walking down the street to get to my parents' house. I miss walking down the street to see any of my family that I'd want to see, in fact. I miss our church, I miss my parents' front porch. I miss my brother just stopping by at our little apartment. I miss the warmth of family, most of all- always having someone to hang out with because I'm lucky enough to have my family as my best friends. 

I miss friends too, the few I'd see often. I miss coffee at curbside with Natalie. And frozen yogurt with Katie. I even miss exploring Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh and my little home town- I don't love them that much until I leave them. I think that could be true for many people that I know. Pittsburgh is kind of a drab of a place- yet when you leave there's not really any other place you'd rather be.

And I don't think it's the place. I once heard it said that what makes a place is the people in them, and that's what it is for me. Home is the best place in the world to me- this small town that is so depressing sometimes- because of the people there, the people that raised me with so much love.

But the fact of the matter is I am not there, I am here. I am in this vibrant place called Charlottesville and I have to start calling this home, too, or it will never be. I don't want it to be home forever, but for a time, it is, and it has to be. So my decision is to call both places home, and love them both the best I can.

Welcome to Charlottesville!

Hello from Charlottesville, VA!

Nick and I are on day three in our transition from our forever home in Pittsburgh to our new home in Charlottesville, and in the little time that we've been here, so much has happened.

We are the luckiest because we have my wonderful family helping us transition. They've helped build new things, make a room full of boxes look like an actual living room, and just love us and be there for us when we need it the most. Sadly, they will be leaving tomorrow, and I think we will survive, though I will miss them terribly.

On boxes and change (a first post).

There are boxes everywhere and the place looks a bit unlivable. That's probably pretty dramatic, and one of those "first world problems" type of phrases, because in reality, it's probably not that bad. But to me, it's a true mess, and I'm not your typical neat freak.

I guess there is just something about a room full of boxes that makes a room feel so un-homey. So cold. And at times, these past few days have felt like that. Like I'm living in the only place that I've ever belonged, but I don't actually belong anymore. I am in transition. Change is happening.

So often we think of change as a bad word. We crave comfort in this culture, and lets face it, change isn't comfortable. I'm not comfortable with it, that's for sure. I kicked and screamed in a toddler-like tantrum when I found out that I had to change…I had to move from the state, from the home-town, from the family that I had been living with all of my life.

And days like today- days after packing a whole week long, days that are less than three days from that big moving day- are just plain exhausting. There are days that it hits you like a mac truck. The change hits you and it's hard and it hurts and it feels like it's never going to end because there are just so many boxes.

But it will end. And God will teach me something- lots of somethings, I'm sure, because that's what He does. He kicks you out of the comfortable because He didn't call you to be comfortable. God calls us to be His, and to walk the path that He sets forth. Sometimes that path seems very comfortable, but no matter how comfortable it seems, it is always riddled with change. There is always change.