2012...So long

To say that 2012 was a blessed year for our family would be an understatement. It was probably the biggest and most blessed year our family has seen. 

I have been going back through the blog tonight and reading the posts from last year and I am so thankful to have all those days recorded. I forgot how hard it was keeping up with the two little ones this time last year. Ally was a tiny baby and my days were so exhausting and hard. I documented her month by month and I think my favorite was her four month post.

I was so blessed to be able to do so many incredible bible studies in 2012. Apples of Gold helped mold my heart so much this time last year. To this day I am still using recipes and wisdom from that Bible study.

In February our posse of visitors started, first my grandparents, then our my parents, then Cameron's parents. I still treasure those visits even though ours now are more frequent :)

In April we bought our first camper.

We were able to take it camping this summer three times and every trip was amazing.

First camping with Cameron's parents at Cloud Nine, then on the Guadalupe over the fourth of July and then to the beach.

For half of 2012 our year was pretty mellow, pretty typical. My days were pretty much the same everyday, balancing and savoring the tasks and blessings of caring for our family.

And then in June we found out Cameron's work was transferring him back to Austin for his next job.

Looking back now we can see God working, but at the time we had no idea.

It was really hard to leave San Antonio, our friends we had made, our church home and our neighbors we loved so so much, but Cam and I both agree now that had we not been moved to Austin our hearts wouldn't have been open or ready to take the next few steps God had in store for us.

So we moved to Dripping Springs, right outside of Austin.

We always try to live out in the country because it is a bit more our pace.

Traffic was a bear for Cam and and because of the area we picked our friends were far far from us.

We were starting over it felt like, finding a new church, establishing a new community etc.

And then one night Cameron came home frustrated from being stuck in traffic for an hour and a half.

He mentioned to me that we should move back to Missouri.

What he didn't know was I had been praying about a change as well. I had been praying for a change because I could see moving every two years and uprooting our family and reestablishing community was not going to work for our family.

So we decided to pray about it and see what God had in store.

A few days later Cameron's parents called to tell him about a job opening back in his hometown; someone had approached them about for him. They didn't know we had been praying for this, at the time we had not told anyone.

It seemed a bit crazy, but we kept praying and more things kept happening.

About this time I asked God to be gracious to us and help us through this process.

Gracious he was, Cameron got another phone call and another job offer from a separate company.

So in a matter of a few weeks we went from praying about a change, to God throwing one in our lap, to asking him to be gracious and Him making two job offers possible.

Cameron accepted the second of the two offers and our parents drove to Texas one last time and arrived on our fifth wedding anniversary to load us up and take us home once and for all.

All of this came so fast and we know full well in our hearts that God had it in the plans all along and we are forever grateful to be a part of plan He has for us.

BUT it was hard. My heart broke as we left Texas and I pulled onto I-35 and drove away from dear friends, big skies and southern hospitality that fed my soul when I moved to a city and didn't know one single person other that my new husband.

We weren't sure what was in store once we moved back to Missouri, but make no mistake about it, God didn't quit on us once we left Texas.

A few weeks after moving back our Sweet Ally turned one year old and her grandparents gathered that evening to celebrate her first year of life and it was that night that she started walking.

God blessed us with what we consider the perfect place for us. Cameron got his twenty acres and I was blessed with a home that I love and cant believe it is ours.

We closed on our house November second and had a bonfire on the property to celebrate.

Just a few days before that Ally and Weston debuted as Mickey and Minnie for Halloween.

We started demolition and a complete remodel right away and began redoing the house to make it ours and just a few weeks before Christmas we moved into our first home.

The next weekend we celebrated Weston's third birthday with family by having a big tractor party. Weston's current favorite thing :)

The week before Christmas my nieces Annie and Macy were able to come over and sew Christmas presents and while Ally napped the girls and Weston made gingerbread nativities. This was one of my favorite things this past Christmas. I missed things like this so much with my nieces.

I cannot say how wonderful it was to be home for Christmas. We haven't celebrated Christmas with our families in three years and never with our kids and it was an absolute joy to get to go to everyone's homes and share in that special time with the ones you love most.

I vowed to myself after spending many lonely Christmas' away that I would never complain about all the places we had to go. I gladly loaded and packed and baked and went to everywhere we were invited because I was so thankful to have somewhere to go.

The day after Christmas our wonderful "Texas" friends arrived at our house and spent several days with us and we treasured our time with them so much. They are such a gift to us and my heart broke as I watched them pull out of the driveway New Years Eve. Just like watching family pull away.

And that is it for 2012. I told ya it was really something.

I cant end this without telling ya'all how much the kids have changed.

Moving back has been such a blessing for them and more ways than one.

They are getting so big, so big I cant believe how big they are and it hurts a little...ok it hurts a lot that they are growing so fast.

Weston is in love with tractors, John Deere especially.

He loves to read and has started bringing me books all throughout the day to read to him, which I love.

He loves the snow and  wants to read the book "Snowy Day' three times a day.

He can be found in his rubber boots about six days a week.

He loves to paint and cut with his scissors.

His favorite food is blackberries and tator tots.

He is all about his "big" cousins and has already had three of them stay all night.

Ally is growing way too fast.

And loves playing with her babies.

She like books, but wont let me read, she just wants to sit on my lap and flip through the pages and talk about them.

She loves to sing and dance and clap.

She follows Weston and around and tries to do anything he does.

She is the busiest little thing I have ever seen and I am constantly getting her out of the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom cabinets and thirty other places she loves to destroy and shouldn't be in.

She loves her daddy.

She thinks he is the greatest and wants to do anything he does and it is so cute. She cries at the door is she cant go outside or wherever he goes.

These are just the few things that are coming to my head right now, but there is so much more. And I am so thankful that I get to be the one here enjoying it all and taking it all in.

This time last year my days were so tiring having a toddler and an tiny baby who didnt sleep, but it is amazing how far you can come in a year isnt it? 

I am excited to see what God has in store for our family in 2013 and I am so thankful for what he has done in 2012.

When I was reading back through my pasts posts last year and the years before I realized how lonely I was in Texas. I never really realized it while I was there, mostly because I had babies to chase, but also because I had ya'all to share my days with.

Thank all of you for reading here and loving me from afar.

I am forever grateful for all of you who have read here the past three years. 

And I am going to miss you all. This will be my last post here at Living Simple in the South.

It has been coming for awhile. When I started this blog  Weston was one month old and slept a lot and       I had a lot of time on my hands and this was just what my soul needed.

But here we are three years later and time is not so available and our little ones are sleeping less and less and needing me more and more. My heart isn't here anymore and it is a little broken as this book closes, but I know the Lord has something else in store.

I pray blessings for all your families and thank you for blessing mine.

So long friends

Life in Missouri

Hello there! Hope this finds everyone doing well! Just popping in while the babies are napping to share with all of you our latest happenings!

 

We bought a house!!

 

We found a house on twenty acres in the country. It needs some love, but Cam and I are both excited about redoing it and making it our own! We close soon and I am really hoping we can be settled by Christmas!

 

 

 

Life here has been nothing short of a blessing so far! It is indeed very different and I miss my Texas friends and grocery stores dearly ;) But being surrounded by so many wonderful people who love and care about us is absolutely wonderful. I am still trying to figure out how to squeeze everyone in. It is a pretty big change to go from being all alone all the time just the four of us to having something to do everyday :)

 

It really does both Cam and I's hearts so good to see our two little ones getting to know their families so well and being comfortable with all of them!

 

Weston is in heaven. He loves being on the farm and had discovered mud puddles :)

 

 

 

 

Ally started walking on her birthday and is now so much happier that she has her independence.

She is our little sponge and constantly getting herself in trouble getting into places she shouldnt go!

Yesterday she decided she loves to play in leaves!

 

 

 

We have been to our cousin Halle's soccer game and she and Weston and getting really close and love to play together.

(the three of us on the hayride, sissy didnt come she was having a bad day)

 

 

I am helping my grandma with a baby shower for my cousin who is having a baby next month. And my grandpa had both of his knees replaced on Mondays. Last weekend we went to a family hayride and Weston was in HEAVEN with all the tractors.

 

 

We have rode 4 wheeleres in the woods and watched the trees turn from green to red and orange what seems like right in front of our eyes.

We went to family reunion and visited the little town where Cameron's family was first started.

I know we have squeezed much more in, but I cant think of it all right now.

 

 

 

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your comments, emails, phone calls and thoughts and prayers.

 

It means so much and I apologize I am not keeping in touch better! Please know you all mean the world to us and we look forward sharing more with ya'all soon!

All is well...

Hello there! I honestly can say I didn't plan on not posting, but things have been so nuts and moved so fast that we are doing all we can to keep up!!

First things first, we are moved.

We now live in Missouri, but we don't have a house.

We have really liked two, but they haven't worked out so we are still looking.

We are staying with my parents which explains why I haven't been posting...they don't have the internet ;)

Country Living at it's finest.

We have been busy looking for a house and visiting family and I cant tell you HOW BUSY that has kept us.

We also celebrated our Sweet Ally turning ONE! She started walking officially on her birthday.

Hopefully pics to come.

I don't have my camera with me today so no pics!

I just wanted to check in with ya'all and let you know that we are alive and well and working really hard at starting our new little journey here in Missouri.

Thanks  so much for all your prayers, emails and sweet thoughts our way!

xo

Lyss

Our Journey

I have always been a very proud person.

I was taught that you work hard for everything and there is no better feeling that when you receive what you have worked for. And this is true. We do have to work hard and we reap a harvest of what and how we have worked, but the whole idea of something being given that just never really seemed to fit how I did things.

Until one summer morning as I was working my way through a bible study on the book of Jeremiah led by Beth Moore. She asked a question that I will never forget, ever.

"Do you believe in your bones that God is gracious"? Do you believe that when you ask God for something that he will be gracious to your request?" (give or take a few words thanks to my memory)

Hmmm. I sat starting at my notes as I wrote it down and mouthed the simple answer "no".

Why would he give me something I had not earned? Why would he give something "just because?"

The answer is simple. 

Love.

It is the very way our Lord works. It is why he sent is only Son. Because of his love for us.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

So, as God began to stir my heart towards certain things I sheepishly stepped out with my hand open and said, "Lord, please be gracious. I am scared, I am unsure, but I know of your love, I have tasted your grace and I know I need you now more than ever to be gracious to me as I step out into this unknown.

Every time this situation would arise, I would humbly ask for His gracious hand. 

And then it came.

It brings tears to my eyes to think about it.

And the funny thing is about our God,  he never is what we expect. It reminds me of how powerful and mighty he is when he absolutely blows my mind. I am weak, but he is strong and his love for me (and you) is so strong and great and he is just sitting upon his thrown pouring down his love for us each and every day.

Every time Cameron and I would receive a gracious gift we would laugh and I would remind Cameron that I had prayed for God to be gracious in this journey. It spurred my heart to continue to do so and brought me even closer to just tasting a bit of his love for me.

I have learned that if I want to keep learning, I have to keep being taught. I try to surround myself with more that one reading at a time and I am always amazed at how the Lord uses them to work together to teach me.

While I was doing the Nehemiah study I was also reading Ann Voskamp's 1000 gifts. Her approach of having an open hand to the Lord and his bounty of blessings everyday encouraged me to open my own and let him be gracious. Let him love the way he does.

"With each gift I had accepted and given thanks for, I let go of my own will and accepted His" 

p. 209 1000 Gifts, A Voskamp

Yes, yes, as I read these words I smiled because they were my exact heart.

God was not only gracious to me and my request, when I received it with open arms I could see and feel how we were stepping into a new journey. A part of our journey that he had laid out before we were born. It was his will for us all along. And his will would have been done, no doubt, I mean he is God, but me being humbled  and feeling His great love and being completely smitten by how he cares for me, that probably wouldn't have happened had I not asked Him to be gracious. 

And then, one Sunday morning my bible flipped open to Jeremiah 29:11

A verse I know so well and have read time and time again.

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

I smiled because I know these words to be so true. But that morning I happened back up and read a little before that familiar verse, the end of verse 10.

"I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place"

I don't ever remember reading about God being gracious here before? But this morning these words have never felt more true, never spoke to my heart so deep, and never in my life have I felt his hand so well.

And today the last piece of the puzzle was put together.

We are moving home, back to Missouri.

I am completely overwhelmed at how God has orchestrated this whole thing. And I continue to ask Him to be gracious because in times of change and plotting down a new journey I know how vulnerable and weak I can be, and I need him. I need his grace.

This may be one of the most bittersweet things I have ever walked through.


I love Texas, it has been my home for five years.
It is where I had my babies.
It is where I learned to be a wife.
It is where I learned to be a momma.

It is where I learned to really walk with the Lord.
So much of my heart is here and yet so much of my heart is back in Missouri.

Almost five years ago to the day I was on my knees bawling my eyes out on the lane leading to our farm because I just didnt know what else to do. The pain was so deep when thinking of leaving everything and everyone I had ever known.

And then God spoke to my heart.

Moving to Texas was hard and beautiful and wonderful all at the same time.

I can see some of God's plan for us here and some I know I will never know.

And without a doubt we know He has a plan for our family back in Missouri.

A plan beyond steady jobs and dream homes and starting fresh.

And we are trusting, and we are excited to be back. It isn't home anymore, but once we all four are there together I know how quickly it will become home to us again.

Weston had a moment yesterday where he said he didn't want to move and I assured him that we would all be together and home is wherever we all four are together.

I remind myself of this daily.

So that is what has been going on.

That is why the blog was neglected for awhile and I had no words.

I am completely humbled that God would be so gracious. Someday I hope to share the whole story with you and how amazing this journey has been, but for now I have to get to packing.


But I just wanted to ask you one thing....

"Do you believe in your bones that God is gracious"?