Where are we now?

Can you tell by the pictures where we are?

Great friends in the poop barn :)

Are there rules on how to pass buggies when on a bike?

"We are not in 'Kansas' anymore"

But we were at

1.  The high school parking lot

2.  The Walmart parking lot

3.  The Meijer parking lot

4.  On the way up just about everywhere

The Conqueror

One morning I was asked,"Honey, do you like this tree?" 

"Not really," I replied.  

"Good,"  said Mr Conqueror.  And that was the end of our co ersation.  Next thing I knew....

The tree was on it's way to coming down.

And then it was gone.  Yay!

And this one was trimmed

So it could be beautiful again. 

And on to the rest of the bushes

To let the sun shine in 

Quirks and collections

This  I think everyone has a quirk or a fetish.  Right?  Something we do as individuals that make us a bit unique.  Maybe it's the way we hold a pencil or coffee cup.  Maybe it's the way we pronounce a certain word or use punctuation.  I know I'm guilty of many Moriah-isms.

And many people are collectors of some sort.  Coffee cups,  Roosters.  Brass owls.  Purses.  Spoons.  Charms.  Tools.  Cars.  Big, expensive things.  Cheap, simple things.  Sometimes we collect things that have meaning -like something to remember every place we've traveled to.  And other time they're just a few of our favorite things.

But has everyone ever heard of someone collecting outside Thermometers?

 After I stopped giggling, I had to make a separate post about this.   From nearly 

from nearly every window, including the powder room 

I can see what temperature  it is outside.  Thinking it shouldn't be much different from one window 

to the next,

 or one side of the house

 to the other, but at least now I have the thermometers to verify this hypothesis.   :)

Mirror, mirror on the Wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall.  Who's the fairest of the all?

Is it me?

Or me?

Or me?

Oh how I get the giggles whenever I try to see how many mes I can see.  You see, I have a mirror here-

And there-

And everywhere-

And just where am I?  Well, I thought you'd never ask.  My master bedroom and bath!  Wait!  Before you "yikes!"  I truly am standing  in an 8-person hot tub that's in my master bath.  Now you may Yikes!

There's a big mirror over the vanity.  And a medicine cabinet with a mirror on another wall.  Plus a giant, light-up makeup mirror.  Then there's the mirrored closet doors and a 5' x 5' mirror over the hot tub.  And just in case one wasn't able to see enough of themselves, there's an entire wall of mirrors in the bedroom.  Yep.  Floor to ceiling mirrors about 12' x 9' feet of solid mirrors.

The former owners of the Ranch certainly enjoyed their mirrors and quiky tub.  But for us,  it's tad too much.  And in case you are asking what all our friends and family are when they tour our room, "Why the mirrors and tub?"   We didn't ask.  Some things are best unspoken and this is one of them.  I mean when our hot tub puts a new meaning to the words "block party"- that's just too disturbing.

So taking selfies to see how many mes I can see brings back the giggles every time. 

Moving In

Oh my!!!  Was this house ever dirty when we walked into the ranch for the first time after it had become ours.  It was overwhelmingly filthy.  Disgusting, give me the heebee-geebees type of dirty.   Many times, especially when cleaning the bathrooms, the girls and I threw up in our mouths. The comments I heard as they cleaned did keep me laughing even though this house was making  our stomachs turn.   Dust and spider webs are one thing .  But dozens of dead bugs falling out of window coverings, hairs in every bathroom sink and drawer, and dark, smelly stickiness in kitchen drawers is a whole new level of dirty.

(Bugs from inside one blind)

And how could I have forgotten the nails left in the walls?  We found nails just about everywhere we looked and in the oddest of places .  There were even two nails about knee level behind the bathroom door.  Weird, I know.  I also know I I pulled out 52 nails in Ks room alone and her room is the smallest room in the house.

Anyway, after days of cleaning, we were finally ready to unload the moving truck and start making this home our Zoe Ranch.  Once again, we were blessed to have friends and family show up to help us do what everyone hates doing - moving.  I counted 18 people here unloading the truck and helping fix a meal.   Wow!  When it came time to move the piano in, the piano that had been my grandma's, five very strong teenagers literally picked it up, carried it off the truck, into the house, and sat it down right where it needed to be.  I think those of us watching all had to shut our jaws before we gave them a big shout out and round of applause.

Note to self: take more pictures as you never know when you'll decide to start blogging your adventures...

Thank you all for your help packing us up in CO and unpacking us in IN.  Each one of you are incredibly awesome and much appreciated! 

After a long, hard, exhausting week we were home.  We slept well in the house God had graciously provided for us.  With all our financial struggles due to treating Lyme, we didn't know if we would ever have a place to call home again.  But God....  Don't you just love that phrase?   But God.   It changes everything.  Just when you think all hope is lost, your prayers have gone unanswered, and you don't know if which way to turn the unexpected happens.  God is busy writing the story of each of our lives and I just love it when he begins a new chapter with "But God."

The Ranch

I wish I could say everything went as planned in buying this home,  but it did not.  In fact, seemed that at every turn we ran into an obstacle requuring us to find a way to go around, under, or over.  Thankfully, we had the best realtor in the world on our side.  Leah Hudson totally rocked!  It was her hard work that kept this deal moving in the right direction....even when we nearly backed out the very day before closing and 12 days after we had moved and begun settling in,   As we prayed at every one of these challenging twists and turns on our journey, we kept feeling that we were to walk forward in faith.

It was by faith we even started this journey.  It was by faith we trusted God to lead us to the home He had planned for us. It was with this faith I basically bought this house sight unseen as Mark face-timed me in when he had walked through the home,   And it was by faith, not sight, that we were to keep believing the One we believe in even when our feelings were saying "Run!"

As we held onto His promises and  He who promises to be faithful was.  And even though I cried at closing wondering "What in the world have I gotten myself into?" I knew God was my Strength, my Provider, and the Giver of good gifts.  This home is  a gift and His Presence is always invited here.   It is our prayer that everyone who walks in our door immediately senses His love. Joy and peace.  And for everyone to feel so welcomed they feel as if they were at their own home and leaves with a warm sense of having been blessed.

Welcome to Zoe Ranch.  A home of peace, God's beauty, love, laughter and life. 

Welcome to the Ranch!

So very thankful you stopped in to visit.  Please make yourself at home and stay awhile.  Curl up a cozy chair, grab a cup of tea, and a freshly baked cookie or two as we chat about life on Zoe Ranch.

With five kids

three dogs

plus a fixer-upper home...  Hold on.  That's an understatement.  Anyone else have  a ceiling that looks like this?

See what I mean?  Just needs a little fixin', right?  Life is a bit crazy.  But I am excited to share it with you as you and I become friends along our  journey. 

Stay as long as you want, giggle and smile, and come back often as I'll be chatting about the progress on our projects (lots of pictures, I promise), sharing kid-tested and approved recipes I've made in the kitchen, and posting  DIY lotions and potions (chemical-free household cleaners).  And I'll be passing along random musings, health tips, and inspirational thoughts as well. 

Be you be uplifted and inspired during your visit to the ranch-
Moriah