My family and I live in southeastern Pennsylvania, fairly close to Lancaster. We also live close to the states of Delaware and Maryland (and frequent them). It's fairly rural here, though much more densely populated than where we had grown up. Within a mile or so of our home here, you can find at least five (small) farms, most of them Amish. A nice friendship even developed from one neighbor's heifers getting out of their fenced area the summer after we moved here. Below, you can see the heifers were enjoying a drink from our kiddie pool in our backyard. Do you see the silos in the background? That is the farm to which they belong.
We really enjoy country living, despite the fact that we have to travel for many things. (Walmart is coming to town-15 minutes away-in August, which will be convenient even if it's not my favorite place. Our town also has hardware and grocery stores, along with drug stores. There is even a little children's book shop! Despite the small size, we also have several choices of pizza shops.)
I really enjoy my own four walls-meaning my home. We built our home in 2008.
Below you can see an empty island-a rarity in my home. The photo was taken in January, I think. We were expecting company which is the reason for the tidied counter and slow cooker. Unfortunately, not too much of the clutter has disappeared since then. In a few months the baby bottles, water, and formula will magically disappear. I can't wait! I have corralled the artwork since then. I also figured out a better system for paperwork than the basket on the microwave. One of these days I will figure out how to remove even more from the counters.
I don't have photographs of all of the rooms in our home, but there is one room that is not properly used. That would be the dining room. We are awful about using it as a catch-all. Below it is all tidied up for company. Honestly, we don't always tidy it for company, but that day we had to use both of our tables to accommodate our own family and our guests. We just have our old kitchen table in there, along with a hutch. You can also see a small children's table. (To be honest, it's where our cat now eats her meals. We had to do something differently since Little Sister is rather fond of kitty food. Not very appealing, huh?)
During the winter, I really cleaned my bedroom and shared here. I really don't have much for decorations. I do like to keep things simple. Right now I am really just trying to get rid of STUFF. We have way too much. I've taken many trips to donate things from around the house since the beginning of the year, but as you can see from this post and various others, we still have plenty of cleaning, organizing, and giving away of stuff to do.
And really, the reason I created This Simple Home was to share a bit of my journey with readers as I spend time focusing on my family and home.
Would you like to tell us about where you live? Just write up a post or link to one that you've already written. You can share it either here or at These Grace Filled Days.
That is too funny - the cows drinking from the kiddie pool, and the cat's deluxe dining space! We have been purging this year too. I can't believe the feeling of less stuff, like a weight has been lifted.
ReplyDeleteSorry to be here so late -- my blog wouldn't upload any pictures earlier today (so frustrating!) But it finally started working this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny about the neighboring cows drinking from the kiddie pool.
I think if we had a separate dining room, we probably wouldn't use it much, either.
I'm catching up a bit today (again). I love your home. I'm glad you do also. Staying home is such a lovely feeling when you love the place you are. The cows next to the swimming pool crack me up!
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