Treasured Year

December 3, 2024 / Kelly Bea / 1 Comment

What a year 2022 was! In world news there was a baby formula shortage, the Winter Olympics and Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. For us 2022 was a sweet year!

Waking up New Years day in our new home was the absolute best. We might of had to roll out of bed since we were sleeping on a air mattress in the guest bedroom, but we were in our little farmhouse. Our dogs could finally settle because we were in our forever home.

After a month we upgraded to a a real mattress (still on the floor)

January brought a new job for me. I was working as a Early Head Start teachers aide. By May I had changed positions and became a Family Advocate. Little did I know this job would help to me see the needs of our new little town. Kevin’s mom had her stomach surgery to remove her cancer, too. Thank you Jesus after chemo and surgery she was and remains cancer free.

January 6th we got our first snow. I was so excited! After 18 years in Alabama snow was not something we got to enjoy. It stayed cold so we got to enjoy this snow for a few days. We did some little projects around the house while we were stuck at the farm.

I also went to New Years Retreat again this year. It was something I really needed. I had no idea what our new life in Kentucky was going to look like. I just new God wanted us here. By the time I left I had goals, a word and mantra. With Pamela’s help we discovered my word for 2022 was TREASURE! It was time to treasure all that God has done in our lives.

February started with an ice storm. No thank you! Just snow please. Our kitchen cabinets finally arrived in the middle of the frozen mess. Kevin and I got them installed. Kevin started on our “custom” range hood Valentine’s day. And by custom I mean using the pallets the bricks came on to create what I pinned on Pinterest. 😎

Mid-February we experienced our first flood on the farm. Sadly, Kevin was stuck on the farm and I couldn’t get home. Luckily, the next time it flooded we were both home!

By the end of March we had the curtains hung, the island countertop was installed, we planted some trees, the master bath was finished and we got to move into our master suite. My uncle brought out an old barn post for our mantle and had his guys wrap up a couple odds and ends around the house. We also used leftover pallet wood to build our chicken coop.

April we started a garden and explored the farm. I treasured Sunday afternoon farm walks with Lollie. I found peace watching the chickens while sitting on the porch having some time with God. I could get lost in prayer while working in the garden. It was a great spring.

The house was slowly coming together. We went from a partially done home with boxes everywhere to rooms coming together and our house becoming a home. Middle of May we finally got our countertops and had a fully functioning kitchen. Kevin got the closets put together and we filled them full.

Seeing Nadya go to prom and graduate high school was a blessing, too. Our sweet Naddie Lou was all grown up and thriving. Considering all that she went through during her 19 years of life she had a great head on her shoulders and was ready to conquer the world.

The end of May Kevin turned the big 5-0! We celebrated his birthday on the farm with friends. He had a donut cake with the most amazing donuts made by the Amish.

June and July we tended to the garden, got settled in our home and explore our little town of Marion. We were starting to get some veggie from the garden and the chickens were beginning to lay eggs. Life was really great!

I drove up to St. Louis and met up with Stacey and we round tripped to Oklahoma City, OK to celebrate our friend, Kim turning 50. After that we road tripped to Table Rock Lake, MO to spent the week on a houseboat with our Big Life Sisters. What an amazing 7 days of life we had!

Next was a weekend of life with my 80’s ladies. We have been friends since the 1980’s and love our yearly get togethers. I treasure our time together. It truly is amazing when you can get together once a year and pick up right where you left off.

The garden was producing faster than we could keep up. Fortunately, we found a local church that has a food bank and started donating fresh veggies to them. We felt God saying this is why you are here. Grow more and give more. It filled us with joy to be able to do this. In October we were still filling buckets and boxes of veggies to donate to the food pantry. Thank you God we love it.

In the fall Kevin and I working on finishing the mudroom and the pantry. Finally, the house was close to being done. I was starting to make list of places I need to touch up paint and little things that needed a quick fix, but I would say the house was finally.

We finally got the piano moved to the house!

We got to celebrate Thanksgivings, but snow kept us stuck at the farm alone for Christmas. We loved it and made the most of it, but it was sad not having the boys with us. Thankfully we got to meet up with them in Nashville on the 29th. We had dinner and “parking lot Christmas”. We literally parked side by side and did a gift exchange. It will be a Christmas we will never forget.

2022 was truly a year that I treasured. Our lives had completely changed. We went from spending up to 2 hours a day commuting and working 40+ hours a week to a slower and much happier life. I was a Family Advocate at Chapel Hill working just 200 days a year from 7-3. Kevin was able to not work for a full 11 months and is now a bus driver for the head start program working just 200 days year. Life was so good and we were treasuring it.

Light Shine Bright

November 14, 2024 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

As we rolled into 2021 we were still learning to live in a covid world. Here in the United States we were dealing with election fallout and a change of Presidents. Despite all the chaos that 2020 brought I was overflowing with joy for all the good God was doing in my life.

Restoring my relationship with God had me centered and focused on living the life He has in store for me. I knew that in 2021 I wanted to shine bright for him. I wanted to be a light in the darkness. Most importantly I wanted people to look at me, see my zest for life and know it’s all because of God. With all that in mind the word ILLUMINATE became my word for 2021.

The mantra I said to myself daily: “With a heart on fire for the Lord, I will live my life with so much zest that I ILLUMINATE Him in all I do!”

Why ILLUMINATE? The definition is “make (something) visible or bright by shining light on it; light up”. I want to light up God and how amazing He is.

Toby Mac has a song called “Lights Shine Bright” that was my theme song for that year. Here is the first verse:

I wanna magnify your light
I wanna reflect the sun
Cut like precious diamonds
With the colors by the millions
This is the only world we know
And for now this rental's our home
If we gonna be a reflection
Gotta make this third rock glow
(Just so you know)
Lights shine bright everywhere we go
Music for the people to illuminate the soul

I went to New Year Retreat in January of 2021. This is where it was confirmed that illuminate was my word. During retreat I really was able to connect and open up about my dreams. When I left retreat I had my word, mantra and goals for 2021. I also left with some forever friends and sisters in Christ.

The end of January I ran my first marathon with my 6AM Hotties there to cheer me on. These are the girls I connected with during the height of covid in 2020. We worked out together every morning at 6AM. The only goal for my first marathon was to finish. Based on my 22 mile training run I was thinking I could finish in 5 hours and 5 minutes.

The marathon started off in the low 60’s and it was raining. I was happy about this, because I run well when it’s raining. Around mile 14 the rain stopped, the sun shined bright and the humidity of the south kicked in. This wasn’t good for me. I get migraines when I overheat and I was overheating big time. My pace slowed down and I was struggling big when I hit mile 20.

Just as my mind was telling me I couldn’t finish my phone rang. It was my friends, Pamela and Jessica calling to cheer me on. During their pep talk I cried and laughed. They gave me what I needed to finish!

Just before I hit mile 26 I heard my hotties cheering for me. A couple of them ran with me giving me that burst of energy to finish strong. I crossed the finish line in 5 hours and 35 minutes.

Things were going great at work. I was an administrative assistant on a government contract and in training as a ACPSO (Assistant Corporate Program Security Officer).

On the other hand, my husband was miserable at his job. He had been staring at code since 1997 and just needed a break. My goal was to get to a place in my career that Kevin could quit his job and go do something else.

God had other plans. He dropped the first little spark one night in May. Kevin and I were looking at old pictures on TV and one of our family farm in Kentucky popped up. I made some comment about how this is the spot I always wanted to build a hunting cabin and he agreed. That little spark caught fire and burned bright in a matter of months.

Seriously, by September we were closing on our house in Alabama and moving in with my mother in law in Kentucky. We had our spot picked and we were talking to my uncle about building our little farmhouse.

We felt God’s guidance every step of the way. He was lighting our path. We knew He had big plans for us in Kentucky.

This blog started because I felt like God was telling me to share our story. It was another way to ILLUMINATE Him. You can go back to the beginning of my blog for all the details of how 2021 unfolded.

As 2021 came to an end we were soaking up all that God was doing in our lives. On New Year’s Eve we moved into the back bedroom and guest bathroom of our little farmhouse. Although we still had a ways to go to finish the house we sure were excited to kick off New Years 2022 waking up on the farm!

Gliding Into Spring

April 3, 2022April 3, 2022 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

I was so excited to wake up to a beautiful, sunny day. After backporch church I quickly got started on a house project! It’s so exciting to finally be working on getting the house looking and feeling like home!

This Glider was handed down to us years ago by our Aunt Faye. We loaded it up and took it to our home in Alabama. I cleaned it up, painted it and put it on our front porch. In September when we moved back to Kentucky it came back with us.

The glider was looking worn and needed an update to go with our new farmhouse. Today I sanded it down, scrubbed it clean and got busy giving her a new look. I was so pleased with how it turned out. She is full of life again and ready for many more years of gliding away!

Look at all the colors she’s been over the years!

Next comes the New Navy to really make her pop against the white brick!

Looks fabulous with my new wreath from The Tin Roof.

Where we are…

February 20, 2022February 20, 2022 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

Dang it’s been a hot minute since I blogged! Life got crazy busy and my routine is nonexistent, so that completely messes everything up!

Since the last time I blogged we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years! We partially moved into our house. My mother-in-law had her stomach surgery, is recovering and is cancer free! We also had our first snow, an ice storm and got so much rain in one day the roads flooded. I couldn’t get home!

Kevin and I have done a lot ourselves. We insulated the house. We painted and painted and painted some more. Still have some more to go. We installed our kitchen cabinets just last week. Next is countertops and finishing up some loose ends. After that we hope to fully move in and get settled.

Here are a few progress pictures since the last time I posted in November. I plan to start posting about our projects and as we finish each room.

All the things are happening!

November 21, 2021November 21, 2021 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

It’s been a minute since I blogged an update on the house. So many things are happening and all at the same time. The tin roof is done, brick and board & batten siding are going on now. Inside the house they have electric, plumbing and gas. Kevin and I just did the insulation yesterday and sheetrock will be delivered tomorrow.

It’s crazy how quickly things are happening now! Yesterday while doing the insulation I found where friends, family and even some of the guys working on the house have added even more Bible verses to the house! Makes my heart happy.

In the past month not only has all the things been going on with the house, but our family has had a lot going on. The good was celebrating 50 years of marriage for my parents. The not so good was Covid hitting 4 members of our family. Thankfully everyone got through it fairly easy. Betty has completed 6 rounds of chemo as of Friday. My parents have had a lot going on with their health and Nadya’s senior year is going so fast! Each day it’s clear to us that God knew our family needed us here. We are so thankful we are here, too.

I think my favorite thing about the brick, siding and roof going on all at once is finally seeing my vision come together! AND still loving it! Haha! You make a decision based on a small sample and pray that it works when it actually starts going on the house.

I always said I wanted a white farmhouse with a tin roof. We also wanted a brick house and picking out brick was not easy! I picked out the Southern Pearl Queen, but kept going to look at others before going back and going with my first pick. I’m so glad I went for it! I love the brick and it looks great with the gray grout!

Bless This House

October 24, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 3 Comments

I think that I might of been just as excited about blessing our home as building our home. For starters seven months ago the thought of moving back to Kentucky and building a home on our farm never even came into my mind. Once I begin to see God at work in our lives and this was going to happen I planned for this!

From the day we started our build I have been praying over our home. I have been thanking God for our home. I have been asking Him to show us His will for us using this farm. So I couldn’t wait to cover the 2×4 walls in His Word soon as I saw them go up. I begin to ask my close friends for verses to put on the walls. I asked family to come and bless the house with us. I began to look up verses, write them down and read them. I would walk the rooms, think about what will happen within the walls of that room and pray over it.

We have a spare bedroom that I plan to build some bunk style loft beds and decorate like a hunting lodge. I imagine the boys coming home and bringing their friends to hunt. I imagine the stories they will tell at night while laying in those beds anticipating the hunt in the wee hours of the morning. I also imagine how much fun grandkids will have on those loft bunk beds one day! 😉

I imagine our friends coming to visit and us sitting around the island laughing and talking. Sitting by the fire during the cold winter months watching the wildlife in the backyard. Mornings on the screened in porch with a cup of coffee and Big Life Devotion. Kevin playing the piano with the windows open for all that lurks in the woods to hear. 🙂

In our bedroom on the wall where our bed will be I have written 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8! My prayer is that we always go to bed knowing how much we love each other and what we mean to each other.

There are verses about love, music, a good harvest, a house and so on. My sweet little four year old niece, Sadie wrote Jesus loves you on the wall in the family room. She was so excited. My nieces Emmy and Nadya wrote verses on walls and so did many other family members. It was a great feeling to see this happening. To feel God’s presence all around our home and in the hearts of those we love.

Thank you Lord for blessing this home! May we always put you first and seek your will. I pray Lord that as you reveal your plans for us and this farm we keep our faith strong and go for all you show us!

To the Window, To the Walls…

October 21, 2021October 21, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 1 Comment

To the window, to the walls, to the tears drip down my face! 😀 Are you picturing the Get Low scene from The Proposal? I know I am! 😀

Seriously yall I was not expecting the day the walls went up to be so emotional. We were on week four of the build and Kevin had started going to help everyday. He had called to say they were close to getting the first wall up so I decided to stop by and check it out.

I must say its really cool to watch these guys work. Phil and Les don’t even have to communicate and Phil just grabs a scrap piece of wood and starts working numbers. Next thing you know they have a wall laid out! When this first small section of the front wall went up I was giddy with excitement. It was happening! Walls are going up on our dream home!

Next was to raise the rest of the front wall. I didn’t know how the 3 of them would do it. I walked out in front of the house so I could take it all in. When that wall started coming up I was overcome with emotions. I was in awe seeing Kevin being a part of building our home. I was so proud of my man. I was full of gratitude to God for making this possible. I felt a peace wrap around me as I thanked God and told him how much I loved it. I was just completely overcome by emotion and comforted by God all at the same time. The tears did not stopping falling down my face!

And there is the front wall of the house!

By the end of the week we not only had our 4 exterior walls up, but half of the interior walls! The following week they finished the interior walls and now it is looking like a house! Its awesome to walk around the rooms and start to get an idea for how things will be.

Front Wall is up!
View from the road.
Exterior Walls are done!
Excited about this wall of windows and door! Can’t wait to sit by the fire and watch the wildlife go by.
Kitchen, Utility room and pantry go there.
Looking like a house! Check out that big front porch!
Our home!

Next comes trusses!

We have been back in Kentucky for 7 weeks now and with each passing day I am more assured that this is exactly where God wants us. There are days when I feel like I am in limbo and don’t have a purpose but I have to come to realize those thoughts and feelings are all in my head. That is the devil trying to throw me off. God has us exactly where we need to be right now. Our family needs us right now more than ever. God has made it where we are available for them. I am trusting in Him and his path for us. I know in due time more of His plans for us will be revealed, but right now we just need to be here in these moments with our family and take in the joy of building our little farmhouse.

Next comes Floors!

October 12, 2021 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

It’s all happening so fast! Blocks are done, lots of digging for water and electric lines and we got a subfloor! Wow! I love driving over to the farm everyday to see what is happening and just breath in that fresh air and having that peaceful, easy feeling come over me.

Next the walls go up and we start to see what everything is going to look like. I am so excited! Behind the scenes I have been doing all the paperwork to get water and electric hooked up to the house. I have started looking at cabinets, lighting, faucets, doors, flooring and hardware. It seems there is always something to be done and I am forever grateful for this blessing so I go and do with a big smile on my face.

Betty (my mother-in-law) has had 2 chemo treatments so far and is handling them really well. The 2nd has been a bit tougher than the first, but the second she starts feeling better she is up and going. Working hours in her flower beds, cleaning, making a dessert or whatever. She is a tough cookie, a go getter, a woman who is living life to the fullest.

Took Betty and Faye out for Sunday Drive!

Footers, Blocks and Electricity Oh my!

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 1 Comment

When my uncle said it would go fast he wasn’t kidding! Be the end of week one we had the footers poured and were waiting on the blocks to arrive!

Footers are being poured!
The garage!
Breezeway connecting the house and garage!
Beautiful sky! We got mamaw to drive out with us! I know she enjoyed getting out of the house for a little while!
Starting to see what it’s going to look like!

After the footers were poured it was the daily drive by to see if the blocks had arrived! One afternoon we showed up and got to see this beautiful rainbow! Thank you God for reminding us of your promise!

Not long after we left the blocks arrived. The next day we drove over to the farm to see the progress just as a downpour came so this was all we saw…

That was a big ole downpour, so it was a couple days before anything else happened.

It’s a little wet & muddy!
Blue skies and back to work!
Looking like something more and more!

Friday night our boys showed up around 10! It was so good to see them and talk to them in person! We couldn’t wait to get up the next morning and take them to the farm. They grew up going to the farm and love it as much as we do so this was a special moment for us!

We are all so excited!
Checking it out!

It was so cool to show them the house and walk them through where everything will be. My oldest was thrilled about how close we are to this finger of woods and the open field on the other side of it. He couldn’t stop talking about the deer that are around this spot. We told him about all the deer and turkeys we have been seeing the past few days with the cooler weather. I think he is in love with the idea of walking out the backdoor to hunt!

They got started on getting electric out to the house, too. Next is digging the line the to road for it and for water. By the end of this week they should start on the floor joist, too! We picked our brick and siding for the house, too!

As much as it is exciting, it is also a little scary picking out things and hoping they will look as good in real life once its all done, as it does in your head when you pick it! Just like the floor plan–I couldn’t find anything that was exactly what I wanted. So I took from different plans and made my own. I found a great home plan designer on Etsy and sent her what I drew up and she worked with me to draw up exactly what I wanted and the square footage I wanted. So, if you don’t find what you are looking for find someone who can help you get it just how you do want it. Vision boards have also been a huge help. I did a basic set for my uncle and have a very detailed set for me. I am constantly adding and taking away as everything comes together. Now that I have a color scheme for the exterior and interior things are falling into place.

Are you ready?

September 24, 2021September 24, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 1 Comment

We were sitting around my uncle’s table looking over the vision boards I made for our home when he said “Are you ready”. We had only been back in Kentucky 8 days, but heck yeah we are ready!

He smiled looked at both of us and said “alright we need to met at the farm and mark where you want the driveway and how far off the road you want the house, when can you do it?” Two days later we were at the farm showing Rodney the spot we decided on.

We were thinking we were just marking the spots, but next thing you know we were hauling the tractor over to the farm and bush hogging down a driveway and spot big enough for them to get started on the house.

Marking where our home will be!
And here we go!
We have a “driveway”!
And there we have it!
Using our imagination to “see” our farmhouse!

Monday, September 13th we were having breakfast when Rodney calls and says “met us at the build site to make sure we put the house exactly where you want it”. And we were off to the farm.

Pinch me! This is really happening. As we drive up to the build site we see all kinds of things happening! A dump truck is coming down the road, my cousin is in a little loader working on the driveway, lots of trucks are there and people are walking around everywhere. Again, pinch me!

We get to met everyone and go over some details. They ask me where I want everything to be and make sure we are good with the distance from the road. Next thing you know everyone is moving around doing something. Kevin and I head to Marion to get our electric set up. When we come back the build site is cleared, our farmhouse outline is spray painted on the ground and they were digging the footers. EPPP!!! To be real honest I was like darn it looks small! 😀 I mean we are downsizing since its just the two of us, but maybe I downsized too much! 🙂 I was told at this point it will look small, just wait for it to get some height.