Home Sweet Home: Georgia Style

Here is it! 

Home, Sweet Home!

We are here in Smyrna, Georgia and couldn't feel more blessed with this little spot. We've enjoyed so much turning "house" into "home", decorating, dreaming, and enjoying the space. It's a great neighborhood, and we've already enjoyed conversations with neighbors. Piper is taken with the yard, and keeps us laughing with the way she tears around the entire house running freely. 

I can't wait to take a picture of the house during each season here. The tree in the front yard is already starting to change color, and I'm sure it will be gorgeous! There is even a bit of mistletoe we can pick off the lower branches to keep in the house during the Christmas season. Sweet!

We are so comfortable here, and look forward to more happy seasons to come! And for a bit more about where we live:

Smyrna: Jonquil City

Population: About 51,000+

Location: 10 miles NW of Atlanta

Fun Facts: A scene from the movie "Joyful Noise" was filmed here; though part of Cobb County, Smyrna has its own library system; Julia Roberts lived here, and Atlanta Bread Company headquarters are located here.

The Picture of Moving

It's been a bittersweet few days as we grow closer to our next big move. Thank goodness we have been presented with some amazing opportunities to be with friends doing superbly California-ish activities: Sailing, Beach Bonfires, Barbeques, and the like!

In general, the balance between planning ahead or accomplishing tasks and living in the present has been very good. We're getting a lot done, but also finding time to spend time with people who we will miss deeply! 

Today is a task day, and as I pack a few boxes here and there I'm struck by how quickly time has flown by. It seems like minutes ago I was finally done setting up the house and feeling at home here. One of my favorite spots is our living room - it is open, airy, bright, and shows the "Ostrander Style" well, I think. It's sad to see walls that I've become accustomed to enjoying looking so plain again.

But, the sweet backside to moving: I'm getting an even clearer look at things that I've missed over the past months. It's so fun to take just a moment to look through that photo album one more time and relieve a few memories, or to see a collection of photo frames from all over the apartment and get a full look at our beautiful life! 

Moving forward isn't so bad, as long as one remembers to take a look around and rest in the present, too!

Attack of the Vacuum

I started to Vacuum the living room tonight, and the sweet scent of pine filled the room. "This is great!" I thought - we haven't had the room smelling like a Christmas Tree since we, in fact, had a Christmas tree in the house. So, I kept vacumming and all was well.

Or so I thought.

After a few pleasant minutes of cleaning, the vacuum decided to absolutely shut down. Didn't work on one setting, and the other (stronger) setting sounded just awful. With that, the investigation began.

Step 1) Clean out the floor brush. 3 Girls' worth of hair is not a good thing for a small vacuum. Poor suffocating roll brush...

Step 2) Clean out the cup and filter. No problems there. In fact, there weren't any pine needles in it at all, which after the Christmas clean up it should have been absolutely FILLED with needles.

*Lightbulb*

Step 3) Spend the next 40 minutes alternately digging into the back of the vacuum with a spoon and tipping it over, delivering piles and piles of pine needles.

It was slow going, but eventually our little Eureka sucker guy was able to breathe again, and Christmas clean up is officially behind us!

What I wouldn't do...

For one of these....

 

I am so cold when I go to bed at night - what am I ever going to do if I live in the mountains? I think I'm in about as temperate of a climate at anyone could ask for. But still, there's always a bit of a chill - especially when my toes first touch the bottom of my blankets. Here goes another cold night...!