broke.

Broke ice maker. Broke dishwasher. Broke A/C.

Our ice maker actually never worked. Just buy new appliances right? Well, we didn't think we would be in this house this long. (It was my dad's house we were just going to live in until "the right house" came along, then as most of you know my dad died of a sudden heart attack the month before Chad and I got married. Almost six years later, we're still here. It has been a whirlwind, but God knew where He needed us to be, that's for sure)

The dishwasher broke about six months ago. I get a workout washing dishes now. Then the a/c "broke" two days ago and finally someone is coming to fix it this afternoon (I hope!). Last night around 7:30 or so when I got home from my first time back at aerobics/working out ever since I've had Cade (yeah that's a whole different story) I was so hot I thought I was about to pass out. Dramatic, I know. I tend to be that way at times, but I opened both the front door and back door (no screens), turned the living room fan full blast, tried to open windows in bedroom (half of our windows do not even open) and I was huffing and puffing the whole time. Serious complaining.

Then, my always faithful voice of reason....my soft spoken, rarely ever stressed or dramatic husband says to me in a very matter-of-fact tone: "Sandi, it's not that bad". Oh how I love that man. It instantly struck a cord with me. He gave Cade a bath while I finished unloading the car, unpacked Cade's bag, straightened up and started load of laundry. I had "so much to do", ya know. Always. Then I was still so ticked that the a/c dude couldn't get out to fix it and even thought about going to stay at my mom's for the night.

About thirty minutes went by, the sun was setting, our black lab laid on the dirty pollen-coated back porch with the open door just staring in probably thinking "these folks are nuts". I had thrown a pajama t shirt on Cade and just a diaper. He is about as hot natured as they come anyways. Toddlers running around in diapers are seriously the cutest thing. His little chunky tan legs kill me. I could just eat him up. The house started to cool down a bit, I ate a salad, drank like a gallon of water and all of a sudden there was such a nice crisp breeze throughout the whole house.

The temperature really began to cool off, there was a fragrance of fresh cut grass throughout the entire house and a not-so-heavenly symphony of frogs in the backyard. (We live way out in the country, mind you) I thought about when I studied abroad in Italy for 6 weeks in June/July with NO A/C AT ALL! How did I survive? I'm so spoiled. We slept with the window wide open and even on the hottest days, it always cooled off at night. With our fans we survived. You see the Italians don't need a/c running 24/7. They lounge around and have three hour dinners. Never any sense of urgency or list of things they just "had to do". They hang their laundry on clotheslines to dry. That lifestyle that I tapped into for those short six weeks started to come back to me.

I looked around at the healthy toddler in a diaper running around laughing and my helpful husband who is always willing to give Cade a bath, even after working all day then coming home to get out on the hot lawnmower. Sure, we get our ice out of trays old school style, hand wash dishes, and I feel like we are overflowing with junk in this house due to lack of space. We've dealt with a leaky roof, invested in a new one, remodeled several rooms, had a broken a/c more times than we have wanted, remodeled some more, even inherited an awesome in-ground pool which unfortunately now needs a new pool liner and looks disgusting (yep, it's also "broke"). Things have seemed to "break" left and right but you know what? it's a roof over our head, it has been a safe place to lay our head on a pillow, and at the end of the day when I thought about it... another night without a/c really isn't that bad. If that is all I had to complain or worry about that day, then I should seriously be getting on my knees and thanking the  good Lord. Also praying for others who may not be so lucky and may not even have a roof over their heads. We feel like we NEED a/c, we NEED a dishwasher, we NEED a bigger house, we NEED this, we NEED that...when actually all we need is so much less. We are ridiculously blessed in so many ways.

The older I get, the more I choose to think about God's blessings than the negative. I also think that some try to make things so complicated, when really life is so much more enjoyable the simpler we keep it. Again, we are all so immensely blessed, yet somehow so overwhelmed with the busy-ness of life and constant race to have the best of everything that we forget to focus on those  simple treasures that are our true blessings. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm 100% guilty myself. Then God stopped me dead in my tracks last night. He tends to do that ya know.

All this being said, the absolutely beautiful bright side to the "no air situation" is that somehow, through a whole lot of prayers, our "need/want" for a new home to grow our family has been answered. We have decided to go forward with building a house. I told Chad that God may be testing us before blessing us though. Whew! We are more than ready to have a new place, but this house has been a blessing and made us appreciate the simple things that's for sure. We've been through some rough times in this house. We've brought home our sweet baby to this house and had lots of laughs with family and friends in this house. God has taken us through valleys and always faithful, brought us back up to the mountain top. Even though we complain about our house, thinking it's not enough, it's actually such a great house, our home, and has been just what we've needed.

We do both work extremely hard (my sweet husband especially!) and have decided it's time for a little upgrade. Little being the key word here. We've decided that even though we're building, it's not going to take much to make us happy. We are so incredibly GIDDY and ECSTATIC just to start this new phase. However, will I cry like a baby when we take the last load and leave? Absolutely. No matter how excited I am, I never deal well with change and I actually grew up in this house for a part of my life, so sentimental is putting it mildly. But, this has been a long time in the making since we knew six years ago that we would eventually want to build. We actually thought it would be sooner than this, but as you hear me constantly preach over and over...God's timing is always, always perfect. He never ceases to amaze me. You can read more about our initial decision to build here. Yes friends, the time is now and we can't wait to get started. Prayers appreciated!

(oh and good news: I think a new dishwasher, ice maker, and fully working a/c are all on the new house agenda:)
  {insert praise hands held high here}