Queen of my Domain

So the home that we purchased in Creston sits on 2.44 acres. I think it may have been a full fledged orchard back in the day but now it's just our own little piece of paradise. We have Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Prunes, Apricots, Cherries, Walnuts, Hazelnuts, and Raspberries. In the short 2 weeks that we have been here we have already harvested fruit off the land. I don't have any pictures of the cherries but here is a picture of the apricots we picked up off the ground. The fruit on the tree isn't quite ripe yet but these ones have been fabulous!  This is one of my peach trees. It has quite a bit of fruit on it this year. I hope that it will continue to increase it's production over the years. I can't wait for them to ripen.  They are still quite tiny but I've been watering them so hopefully they will plump up.   There are a couple of different kind of apple trees on the property. I couldn't tell you which one is which. Only time will

My girls have hit the age where they are gymnists and they are loving every minute of it. They are constantly comparing their cartwheels and handstands and round-offs. I love that they love to move their bodies. Here is some of their hard work.

Life has brought us many ups and downs over the years. The nature of Daniel's work has made home life a bit of a struggle with 5 children, so Daniel suggested that we move to Creston to be closer to family. It has been a very long up hill climb, not something that I want to share here but what I want to share is some of the fun that was had a long the road as I was struggling to move forward. Cardboard boxes....... children's dream come true!!!  Building a tower or something, who really knows. But they were having fun and that's all that they needed to do in that moment.  Empty boxes.... who knew?! Right?!

So in case you missed it the last 5 months have pretty much been a walk somewhere other than a park, or near a cake for that matter. The last 5 months have been the hardest 5 months of my entire 13 years of marriage. I will not get into the details right here right now but I will say this. The very distant light in the dark tunnel has finally come close enough that I can see my hand in front of my face. I can see that life will move forward. I posted a little saying on facebook yesterday that said "Making a Big Life Change is Scary. But, Know What's Even Scarier? Regret. So here we are, trying to settle life, once again. We just did this 3 years ago. This move has had it's ups and downs. What move doesn't, right?! I know we will come out on top, and then we can only go up from there!