So, this is what 15 tons looks like. I stared at a giant mound of gravel sitting near our tiny house lot. Jordan and I were equipped with a wheel barrow and two shovels. Suddenly the 90 degree weather with 100% humidity wasn’t the only thing making me sweat. It was inevitable that spreading this onto our lots was going to take days. We began to dig in and before we knew it, there were more hands, shovels, and rakes beside ours. I looked up into the faces of our tiny community members. 

​I had not asked them to help. They saw a need within the community and willingly chose to fill it. Before long, a neighbor who lived right down the road was bringing his tractor to help push the gravel into place and what would have taken days ended up taking hours. Amazingly, this isn’t the first time this has happened. 

A couple of months back the same willingness to assist occurred when we had our shed delivered and everyone helped to put it in place. Another couple within the community has watered our grass seed, given us a place to cool down as we worked on our site and answered the zillion questions I’ve had about tiny living.

Every day when I turn on the TV or open social media, I am bombarded by hate, heartbreak and the brokenness of our country. There are so many people hurting and alone and its easy to feel stuck and hopeless in the midst of all the loss. I love the quote by J. R. R. Tolkien, “There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.” That good isn’t always flashy or grand in gesture; sometimes it’s as simple as grabbing a shovel and moving gravel.

​Goodness and kindness can be found all around you. I urge you to look for it and add to it, however small you think that contribution may be. I’m so pleased to be joining this community of people who give it so freely -- my community. 

* Update 7/11/2020* 
AND THE WINNER IS.... The Blue Haven Bungalow! 
Thank you all for participating and a special thanks to Maggie Hannon Stutz for the "Haven" inspiration! 

*Update 7/10/2020* 

For those of you following us on this journey, we wanted to involve you even more and invite suggestions for what we should name our beloved tiny home. J and I both agree it should embody the spirit of what we're doing and match the look of the house while also being "catchy". While we can define the criteria for the name, blank stares ensued when we we tried to brainstorm the name ourselves. Evie, on the other hand, was full of ideas such as "lampboob", "schnarklelou" and "googag". As creative as those were, we thought we'd keep searching and ask for your help.

Below is a pic of our sweet home.  Post your suggestions below. Once we've got them whittled down, we'll put them to a vote. The winner will get the utmost satisfaction of knowing they've named a tiny house and forever be famous in this blog (ooooh, ahhhh). 

​Also, if any of you are ready to dive into your own tiny adventure, Hawk Tiny Homes has a build opening. Be sure to mention my blog and receive $200 off an appliance!