us

July 31st, 2011 by sharaleep | 20 Comments »

for those of you who check in here regularly (i do not presume to think there are many, other than my mom…and amber who comments on nearly every post and oh how i love her for it :), you may or may not have noticed that it’s been a little quiet the past couple of weeks.  this does not mean i haven’t been working…quite the opposite.  i’ve been working hard to balance my professional and personal life and haven’t always been that successful (ask the people whose calls i’ve taken several days to return “sorry!”.  oh and you could ask my children too).

the thing is, in the midst of my busiest photography season ever, we decided to move.  this was not a decision that came easily and the process of it once it was made was even harder.  because it wasn’t just a matter of moving from one house into another.  for the past two years, our family has lived in community.  “ don’t we all live in a community” some might say.  yeah, but we don’t all live in a commune,  and as weird as it is to say, that’s kind of what we’ve been a part of.  a group of people who came together with a common mission, living together, sharing our stuff and our lives.  and it was wonderful.  friends became family. we began to challenge each other to live more simply and to honor others and God with the choices we made.  we saw people move in and move out, watched babies grow and big boys go to their first day of school.  we saw people quit jobs and start new ones, saw (so many) dishes broken, had shelves collapse and saw gardens grow.  we got frustrated.  with one another and with ourselves. we laughed and cried and were moody and made fun of one another and played silly games and cooked for each other and avoided each other and cleaned up each other’s messes (sometimes willingly.  sometimes not.).  we saw a wedding (we were all there) and a baby born (we were not all there).  we called ourselves a cult as a joke because we knew people were wondering and hoped that saying it first would diffuse their fears (we think cliff’s mom might still think it’s a cult.  but i’m okay with that).  there was almost always someone around to talk to, to watch a movie or go for a run with.  there was grace in difficult moments and celebration in milestones.  and love.  lots of love.  not always the warm fuzzy kind, but the true kind that perseveres and hopes and doesn’t fail.

so you can see why it was hard to leave.

but here we are, a growing family.  we were just feeling like it was time.  not to pursue a new path but to embrace the place we are in life and run with it.  and just as we were talking through that, an opportunity presented itself: the house my grandpa built.  the perfect amount of space for us inside and an abundance of space out.  and four doors down from my parents (so close i think i can hear my mom dreaming up the next way she’s going to spoil my children:).  and in a sweet little town not far from work and friends and community.

it feels pretty special.

i don’t really have many memories of my grandma and the ones i do were of her when she was sick.  but as i hung my first load of laundry on her line today, i could vividly picture her doing the same.  my grandpa i knew better and all sorts of things about him flooded back as i walked down the driveway and checked out the grapes growing on the vines in the back and heard my dad talk about the number of nails grandpa had used in the kitchen cabinets.

we don’t know how long we will be here, but we’re going to love every minute of it.  and our kids…oh our kids.  so excited.

and we love visitors!  please come by.  we’ve already had a few lovely and unexpected drop-ins.

future engagement shoot location??

Tags: yarrow
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