Thankful On Paper

I wanted to link up with the beautiful No. 17 last week for her Thankful on Paper series, however I stumbled and fumbled with figuring out who to write to.


It isn't that I don't have people I am grateful for, I do, I do, I do, I do. However, I think I do a decent job of letting them know how special they are to me.  Also, this year my heart has been so fully and completely blessed, it just didn't feel right, continuing to go on praising the Lord for the many blessings, and not thanking the people whom the Lord used to give us these blessings. 
As I've only met this couple one time, I think it's safe to say they wont stumble upon my blog here before receiving their letter so I'm going to share the letter here with you today. I wrote the letter out on notebook paper and created a card on my computer that I'll sort of recreate for you below. My plan is to get their address tonight and take the boys over there, have them ring the door bell, say thank you and come back to me. Hopefully, this gesture will bless them today, even a fraction of how much we have been blessed. 
Thank YouFor our new home

For the memories that we've made ...
(inside of card) 
And those yet to come. 
Blessings from,The Thomas FamilyBrian, Teresa, Owen and Micah
(back of card) 
Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you.In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.Philippians 1:2-4

Dear Mr & Mrs D, I know this letter is out of the ordinary and definitely out of the blue, but I had to write it nonetheless. Each year around thanksgiving I make an effort to be nostalgic to slow down, think and reflect on my blessings. This year in particular I'm pausing daily to record and share a praise to the Lord with my friend and family online. 
Already, several of the things on my list specifically relate to our home. The front porch and our first ever time passing out candy on Halloween. The millions of leaves and sounds of laughter as the boys played with their dad. The luxury of having a dishwasher. The sunset seen from the beautiful picture window. The bright red fall flowers out front I didn't expect and couldn't love more. 
Since purchasing this home from you we have paused several times, daily, (at first it was several times a day) to praise our Lord for this new home. The beautiful kitchen, the arches, larger room for the boys, the basement, the bones and the solid foundation, the space for a guest bedroom/office, the room to grow, the entryway to keep our coats and shoes without cluttering our home, the garage, fenced in yard, the driveway for bike riding. The size.The style, oh how we hoped for a ranch!The appliances.The extras. Light bulbs, toilet paper, trash bags, clocks, shovels, mops, trash can, air fresheners. You name it, and we were blessed by it, and have probably thanked the Lord for it. There was a challenge online I wanted to follow that said basically to think of the person who has had the greatest impact on your life (right now) someone who has blessed you with or taught you something invaluable and then write them a thank you, on paper. 
We have so many amazing people in our lives, a church family, family, friends and mentors who have blessed us abundantly over the years, through the trials and joys. Parents who define "giving" and "putting love into action,"  so many people whom I would normally expect to be at the top of my thank you list. 
However, looking back at 2011 our greatest blessing was walking through the door of our home, together as husband and wife, parents, homeowners, for the first time. Our journey towards home-ownership finally complete. Our prayers for a safer, homier/roomier place for the boys to grow up, for a place we could decorate and make our own, finally answered. 
I want to thank you both from the bottom of my heart for letting the Lord use you to bless us so abundantly, so completely that even still my husband will walk into a room, hold my hands and say "could you love this house anymore?" 
Actually, I fall in love with it a little as each day goes by. 
I do not know your story, how the Lord used you, how He worked through different Realtors or friends, but I do know I am so incredibly grateful that our paths crossed, that your home was on the market long enough for us to find it. 
Thank you for all of your generosity the day we closed, for being willing to sell us this beautiful home, for all of the extras, and for taking such good care of it over the years. 
May the Lord bless you abundantly,Teresa Thomas
Alright readers, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by my blog, as always I hope that you were blessed by this space. Head over here to check out other Thankful on Paper posts today. 
Don't forget to slow down and enjoy this Season of Thanksgiving and count your blessings. 

The Front Steps

Lord, 

We are beyond grateful for our new home, 

there are so many things about it that we love. 

Love being homeowners, having our own decorations and our own yard. 

Today I want to praise you special Lord for our front door. 

For the small front porch in which we have been able to welcome friends, 

sit on and watch the kids play our front yard, 

and even greet Trick or Treater's last week 

(for the first time in our married life). 

Thank you Lord for this blessing, in a time where so many are losing their homes and struggling to stay afloat, thank you for this space we can finally call our own. 

Brilliant Surprise

Gracious and Loving Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for the beauty that surrounds us, 

and especially for this striking plant that I 'found' 

in front of my house last week. 

What a beautiful surprise, another lovely gift that 

you gave us with our new home. 

The Kitchen Makeover

When we first moved in we had 3 priority rooms that needed to be updated to make the home our own. The kitchen, master bedroom, and kids room. Remarkably the three were done and the house was move in ready within 4 days, thanks to the amazing help of my Mother In Law Karen who came out for the week to help, and others who popped in to help with moving, cleaning, and painting when they could. Oddly enough the bathroom was not on that list, and yet it was the first project I featured on here, funny how life works sometimes. So, I thought it high time to start showing you some of the other rooms in our house.

Today we will focus on the kitchen. Even before we removed the wallpaper I loved this space, the kitchen is spacious with tons of cabinet and pantry space. I still can't figure out what to put in our Lazy Suzan's or two other cupboards!!!!

 Replacing the red sink is on my hubby's to do list, I wasn't really worried about it to be honest, but he would like it to be updated. Because of this, I didn't want to pick the color of the kitchen to necessarily coordinate with the sink (like I did the bathroom).

This is what the wall looked like after removing the wallpaper and trying our three color samples on it. Originally I'd been leaning towards the brown or green, that first color (blue gray) had been purchased for our bedroom. Somehow though, neither of them seemed to work right in the space.

As you can see the cupboards are very dark so it was hard for me to pick a color that would help them stand out, but also wouldn't swallow up the space too much.

My dad took daycare duty for the weekend like a champ. You can see the kitchen behind him, look at those big bags of wallpaper scraps!

Alright, this is the last picture of the kitchen before, don't you just love that window? I love that window. It brightens the space up so much, and weird as it might seem, I feel like I'm in a movie when I stand in front of it washing dishes or cooking for my family.

Are you ready to see the space transformed? Well, here it is ...

See my nice bottle collection starting up there?

Fighting from opposite sides of the room!

Dinning table

I love love love the arches, love love love.

We had to put a stop to this because toys were being hidden behind there, and because O isn't exactly a light weight, but it really was O'h so cute while it lasted :)

Thanks for stopping by today :)