we traveled to tontitown, a small country town known for its antique stores, italian food & deliciously plump blueberries. a beautiful combination.

we arrived early before the summer heat made its way to the farm.

we picked gallons of blueberries ready for baking, preserving & enjoying.

blueberry jam for biscuits & blueberry syrup for luke’s delicious pancakes. we still have another gallon in the fridge- do you have any ideas?

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we are finding our way around this place & beginning to feel a little more at home. thank you for all of your responses on feeling at home. i look forward to opening those boxes & hanging up favorite artwork, setting up my studio, & making comfortable nooks around our home.

we cleaned, we packed, WE MOVED. we are safely in our new southern home. after three days, we are finding that this small town has its challenges. still, we are continuing to step forward, allowing ourselves the grace to cry a little, relax when we are beyond exhausted & eat snowcones when life is a little too difficult for healthy coping. we are thankful for this place & luke’s job regardless of the small difficulties life seems to be throwing our way.

and of course, home is not home without a raised bed.

we obviously have our priorities right. as i am sitting here, using two boxes as a “desk,” i am happy to see a raised bed outside the window. we plan to build three more this week.

what do you do to make a new place feel more like home?

it is impossible to describe the weight on my heart as we pack up our lives, say goodbye to our sweet friends & move back to our home state. the goodness of this place has filled us up for four years, made us anew & brought us together. we are tremendously grateful for our beautiful friends, the progressive culture of thought & our home that we have experienced here. i want to keep this goodness close to my thoughts & heart as we make this difficult {but good & necessary} transition. this week will be a hard one, i am sure of that.

i plan to keep quiet around here this week, but i will stop over at tend on tuesday so please drop by.