march madness in the mclaughlin house...

march madness in the mclaughlin house

has had nada thing to do with basketball

but rather

the usual madness...

two busy, curious, fearless little boys +

two busy, ambitious, anxious parents +

the typical "maddenings" of march:

snotty noses + sore throats,

tax preparation,

the start of wedding season,

and rain {lots of it} - 

bringing with it

muddy foot prints,

muddy paw prints,

extra baths,

extra laundry,

and extra fun tantrums when it is time to dry off.

this march has been filled with plenty of added jolts of spontaneous 

mad(awesome)ness: 

miles shoving a rock as far up his nose as that tiny little finger could push;

oliver "sleep walk pottying" all over his room;

the carbon monoxide alarm sounding at 5:00 a.m. -

forcing me {in not so flattering sweats and a mouth guard} and my babes out in the driveway awaiting  three firefighters {who were, yes, much more flattering than my sweat pants} to

clear us for re-entry; and

the kitten locking me and the boys out of the house - unprepared, in the cold

{no joke. tiny kitten knocked the dowel to the sliding back door

perfectly into place... we were outside long enough for oliver to compose a new song}:

somehow, march madness + all the added adventures

failed to deter us from

falling madly in love with a five acre chicken farm

{magnificent old farm house, barn photo studio, giant woodworking shop,

five acres for two restless boys...}

and making a spontaneous offer  -

deciding nervously to get our (cozy, beloved) house ready to put on the market!

so... we went right to work gutting our main bathroom to the studs

and tackling a hasty march madness bathroom remodel.

we ran into plenty of kinks along the "bathroom reno" way

AND we ran into a lot of doubts along the way as well...

did we really want to leave our cozy home?

all the hard work + the memories made here

in order to stretch our budget + our energy to the moon?

the night before we were to meet with 

the seller to try and negotiate,

i listened to a crazy rain storm outside and i prayed.

i asked God to please bring me and ryan clarity -

to let us know if the farm was meant to be.

we met with the sellers and

decided to move forward with

finding a way to make the farm ours.

but, just as i was about to drive home and start

diving knee deep into subdivision research...

i felt a sudden push to drive by the property again.

i parked in front of the property

and immediately was taken back with how different it looked

from the four times we had visited (drooling) before.

a few nights of heavy rain

had turned dream farm into nightmare swampland.

seriously. a swamp.

(a swampland that the sellers had just told us we could surely subdivide).

i have always loved the rain.

never more so than now ;)

it is true so much of the time that

when it rains, it {really} pours.

yes - rain has played a significant role in the 

madness of march... bringing about more work

for me + ryan + the vacuum + the washing machine this month.

but it also brought clarity.

and joy.

and some super fun rainy + muddy play dates with our boys

that i wouldn't trade for any bit of blue skies.

march RADness:

live creatively,

nikki

"the madness of love is the greatest

of heaven's blessings." - plato

continue reading through this month's blog circle

and see what my amazing friend me ra koh has to say 

about march madness {here}. ;)