Welcome Back

Welcome back friends! I didn’t think I would take a few years away. Let me just start with that. What started off as a might as well redesign my site while we have to frantically move out of our farmhouse for the remodel turned into a few years (for both projects). I’ve come to learn about myself that I struggle with making decisions sometimes. My brain has so many ideas and directions that choosing one route is never easy. Maybe that is why I’ll never be able to “niche down” like these blog advisors tell me to do.

But right now. As the sun is just starting to unthaw the ground (because we got a first frost) and the chimer from the oven (in the finished kitchen) is going off with fresh banana bread… it seemed like a good time to sit back down and talk about where I’ve been and what’s been going on.

PS. we will be eating a lot of banana bread because I accidentally ordered 9lbs and not 9 bananas from instacart.

Ok, bread is out of the oven… where was I again? oh yes. I’m back.

My last post was in February of 2022. It makes me so sad! So much has happened since then. I’ll start with our biggest news!

We welcomed our newest family member, sweet iris june! She was born in April of 2024 and she is just the perfect finishing touch to our family. There was many trials and struggles to get to this point but God is so good. We are so grateful for her health and smiles. I’ll share more about her birth later (I promise I won’t wait two years) but we don’t want this post to get too lengthy. We have places to be people to see right?

Ok, I have to say it one more time. I can’t believe I have a daughter. She’s just so sweet and happy. Otto is the most incredible big brother. He gets more excited about her growth and milestones than anyone on this planet. I think one of my favorite things is when he learned that she could start to see colors we had a little color party to celebrate. I cannot wait to watch these two grow up together. Or can I? Babies please stay little forever!

In other exciting news, we also added a new dog to the family. George Washington Albers came home with us in February 2024. Because why not have a baby and a puppy at the same time? He is another rough collie (lassie dog) and Otto picked him out at Christmas time.  We’ve been waiting for the right time to get another dog and when we moved back home this just seemed like the right time. Every boy and every farm needs a dog. George is from the same breeders that we bought Binks and Butters from over 15 years ago. He’s such a good family dog and Otto loves to play football with George, even if it does cause a few holes in the jersey.

Why do I keep talking about when we moved back to the house? Oh because back in 2022, we moved out of our house into a temporary rental. We ended up living there for a little over a year while our house was remodeled. This ol victorian home is the definition of a snowball effect. What started as a living room remodel because of a burst boiler system, turned into we have a builder here lets do the rest. There is again, so much to update on, best to break it down in to chunks. We are in the home stretch of things here though. The living room will be getting flooring soon and a few paint touch ups and we are good to go.

As I get back into the rhythm of writing I’ll be sharing everything from flooring to wall colors and more. I’m so thrilled with how this project came together. It really does feel like home. It’s my hope and prayer that we get to raise our children in this home and hopefully someday Otto and Iris can bring their families home for the holidays here.  Joe and I were both saying last night that we never imagined we would love living in allegan this much but can’t ever see ourselves leaving.

I have so much more to talk about and share but alas, work and family are calling. It feels good to be back here writing and sharing with you friends. I missed ya.

Abby