Moving out of our Rural Street home was very hard. It was hard for John and I and equally hard for Téah and Micah. (especially Téah) John and many other dear friends and wonderful family members put a lot of sweat, tears and plain hard work into that house. It looked nothing like the house we moved into with a 10 month old Téah when we moved out with a 4 year old Téah and an almost 2 year old Micah. That house on Rural Street will always hold a special place in our families' heart. We still drive by it almost weekly and Micah always screams "me house!!"

However, there have been some great things about our new place and some things about that old house that I am not missing.

- We heat our new house (new to us, it was built in the late 1930's) with a wood burning stove. It is wonderful! The downstairs is usually in the mid-high 60's and the upstairs in the low 60's. And we do have the option of individual electric baseboard heat all over the house if we need it during the really cold winter months. Compared to the sweltering 55 we set the heat at in our old house, this feels so good on a cold, blustery day like today.

- The layout of the house is nice. It's not nearly as big as our old house (purposeful decision) but it is more than big enough for our family. The kitchen is smaller, yes, but the dining room/living room are completely open to each other and there is a bathroom on the first floor and an extra room we have turned into a playroom. Which is great for the kids. They are even pretty good at cleaning up behind themselves when prompted. I have grand design ideas for that room but we'll see when/if they happen.

- The kids share a room. This may not sound like a good thing - but the front bedroom used to be two rooms and it's huge. The kids LOVE sharing. Really - they LOVE it. Eventually it will be the "boys' room" and Téah will get her own space. But for now Téah and Micah are very happy share their space (Téah does not like to sleep alone...) and the baby will have his own space which is ideal for a little while at least.

- No lead. (Ok, almost no lead - just a bit on the front porch which will be dealt with this spring. For now we don't use the front porch very often.) And if you followed my old blog at all - you know this is huge! I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to let my new baby crawl all over the floor and not worry about the heavy metals he might be ingesting and poisoning his system with.

I'm on the hunt for my cord to get some new pictures up too. Soon enough. We're still unpacking - can you tell? Trust me, you don't want to open the door to what will be the baby's room right now. You can't even walk in there.