OUR PLAN FOR LIFE-PRIORITIZE!

Out of the mouth of babes. Our family's eight year old guru, Monica, expounded on her epiphany of orderly living from a display of 'outdoor living' at Walmart that she misread as "orderly living". Her Mamaw Connie caught Monica's 'orderly stream of thought' on her cell phone. 

Monica's first example was of "out of order" living where children are blamed? leading up to the opposite example of her Uncle James who is "loving, caring, takes care of people" and other thoughts to the conclusion that "he is an orderly liver and so, she said, is her Aunt Titi, James' wife".  Monica says "This is how your life should go-you should be dating for at least a year, then get married, then have kids then just pretty much live life normally like my Uncle James and Aunt Titi. Simple? Huh?

Monica put into words the thoughts that had been roaming around in my head about that young couple-in fact, in the same words. 

Monica's Uncle James and Aunt Titi [Kyrstie to the rest of us] had two major life happenings a week or so before within days of each other. The birth of their third daughter, Everlee, and moving into their new home just two days later. 

I'm just in awe and so proud of this young couple who are both only 26 years old that I wanted to get in their own words how they got their college degrees, have their educational loans paid off [the loans were astronomical], have three children, designed and built their home. I knew how because I keep up with them but I wanted to ask face to face. Kyrstie is my niece and I've watched her grow up.  

NO!-a rich uncle didn't die and leave them his fortune!
NO!-they didn't win the lottery!
NO!-they aren't pampered brats of doting parents! [well, sometimes Kyrstie is kind of a brat]

I didn't realize my last post here on TheAlabasterBox was over a year ago and it also was about Kyrstie and their twins, Rylee and Myckinley @

http://cwainscott.blogspot.com/2016/01/it-was-angel.html

When the opportunity came to hop in the car with Kyrstie's mother to go visit in Virginia for a couple of days, I jumped at the chance to see that beautiful new baby and their new home they had just moved into a couple of weeks before.

The chance to talk with James and Kyrstie came Saturday after lunch with the three babies napping [now that's a feat in itself!] after the morning of breakfast, diaper changing, breast feeding Everlee, the twins plastering each other with joint compound they had found [that's a story for another time], baths to wash off plaster, several loads of laundry, snacks, more diaper changing, play time, breast feeding, lunch.

With the twins napping in the corner of the sectional, I got to hold baby Everlee and we  adults  gathered around them in the family room of this beautiful new home that was designed from the ground up by this wonderful young couple. I asked James and Kyrstie how in the world they have accomplished so much in such a short time. I really didn't expect them to go into so much detail but here it is in a nutshell: 
PRIORITIES AND WORKING TOGETHER

A little about Kyrstie:
Born and raised in Blanchester, Ohio.
An honor student all through school and her goal was to be a nurse.
Accepted by the nursing school of her choice in Virginia after high school graduation.
Out of necessity applied for as many grants and scholarships as she qualified for.
Worked 2 and 3 jobs during school and through summers between semesters to save money for her expenses but with all this still ended up with large educational loans. 

and

A little about James:
Born and raised in Virginia
Works in the family business
Is an extremely hard working and industrious young man
Attended business college courses

So how does a little gal from the small town of Blanchester, Ohio meet up with a little farm guy in Virginia? Kyrstie's roommate in college was Courtney, Courtney's boyfriend was Clifton who just happened to be James' life long best friend. Kyrstie told me after just a few days of meeting  she would have married him and I understand that before asking her to marry him, James came here to Ohio to ask Kyrstie's grandfather who had raised her for his permission-how's that for old fashion tradition?

Now back to guru Monica's "orderly living of dating for a year"-
James and Kyrstie dated for 3 more years, saved every dime they could, finished school so were a little more orderly than even Monica's thoughts. James already had substantial savings from working through high school with his family so that plus their additional savings was used to pay off their educational loans because their next goal was a beautiful wedding and a new home as soon as possible and the loans needed to be gone to qualify for the home. Their wedding was as nice as any I've attended and everything was made by Kyrstie and her Mamaw Jackie who is my sister along with other family members. It was  a year long production of planning and work. 

James continued to work and Kyrstie started working as soon as she graduated. After their wedding they chose to live in a mobile home on the back of the family farm instead of renting an expensive apartment. They worked for weeks on getting the mobile home ready to move into-it was far from a dream home but saving rent money meant bringing their dream home into reality much quicker-remember-PRIORITIES.

Kyrstie worked every shift she could even after becoming pregnant with the twins up until she started having problems and had to go on bed rest for a couple of months before they were born.  When the twins' crises were over Kyrstie went back to work. She was able to do this because the "working together" mode is always in operation in this home plus there is a lot of other family who help in the girls' care-James grandmother and mother. Here again, James is no slacker in the parenting department. He feeds and bathes the girls and they cling to him as much as to Kyrstie. If one is crying he sweeps them up and gets them comforted. 

Again, when Kyrstie became pregnant with Everlee, she worked up until a few days before her birth. Their home was being built all during the pregnancy and they moved in 2 days after Everlee was born. 

My photo from across the room of James, Kyrstie, Rylee, Myckinley, Everlee

Great grandmother, Jackie, Kyrstie, Everlee

Rylee and Myckinley just enjoying their new home-things had been really cramped in the mobile home

Play time

Here is  a photo from a couple of days ago-Everlee has grown so from when I saw her a few weeks ago

a day in the life of

Here are some photos of the house as we pulled up into the driveway. James dug out all the basement for the home and put in the driveway himself.

another of James talents-he turned this old sewing machine into a sink for the guest bath

and still another of James' handiwork-he chose and harvested the trees for the floors for the whole house. Then prepared them to be installed. They are a designers dream floor. 

What a blessing to have that Saturday afternoon conversation as those precious baby girls slept. Usually there are so many around you can't even hear yourself think. 

My thoughts have been several times how much better things would be if we  prioritize as James and Kyrstie-putting God first and "in order" as Monica says. 

God bless you
Carolyn Wainscott