A Few Things

Sometimes it's easy to get carried away with parenting. So you have to take a step back and edit. Kind of like when you decorate a mantle. Throw your big ideas out there and then step back and remove all the excess and unnecessary.

School is around the corner. Guess how ready I am? None. Zero. Zilch.  And Jason is wanting us to go with him on his next trip which means I will have half a day to be ready for our first day of CC.  Nothing like adding a little stress to your first week. We aren't looking to have a smooth start to the year. But if I've learned one thing, it's that the year will still happen and everything will eventually fall in to place.

Jason comes home today. He's been gone a month so we are all very excited. He's never even seen our new home (as our home/he saw it twice as an empty building) and the girls are anxious to show him around the place and point out all their favorite spots. And I know he's anxious to catch up on sleep and family time. This traveling is rough on him because we can't treat his Lymes the way we need to and after this long of a stint, he's really feeling it.

It was 90 degrees at 8:45 this morning. What?!

Sunday Night

I wish I was a bedtime expert. Everyone has earned their prizes and that ship has now seemed to sail. So now I'm reverting back to the stern, I'm-going-to-scare-you-from-even-thinking-about-getting-out-of-bed routine. It's not my favorite and it's not the girls' favorite.

Trying to figure out school plans is for the birds. What stress. Which things matter the most? Which things are ok to let go but I just don't know it yet because I'm not to that point in life yet? Does one education beat out another education? Are they all good enough? Are they obviously not good enough? Is my patience and long-suffering going to completely leave me by the end? I think maybe yes on that last one. I feel like it's time for me to get settled on what my long-term plan is but I haven't been able to do that yet.

Our house is totally and officially unpacked. Now I need to move Jason's studio items and then get ready for our Classical Conversations parent meeting and then organize all the cabinets. If I think about it all at once, my chest gets a little tight so I'm trying very hard to just think about it in baby steps. Very, very small baby steps.

Long live the malt!

I hate to go on too much about what I like about living in this house because I feel like it's not fair to our sweet, old house that we had before. The truth is that I loved every moment of living there but I'm not going to lie- there are things about this house that I love even more.  So please just know that if I seem to be overly praising this house (it still needs a name, btw) it has nothing to do with how much I loved our old place. Everyone clear on that? Good.

We got a new refrigerator installed today. It was on the list of things to eventually get but then the old one started leaking stuff out the back and Jason said to us go ahead and bump it up to the top of the list. I knew I wanted one with the middle door, and the cheapest one came with a screen where you can connect to the internet. So now, I feel slightly embarrassed at our refrigerator fanciness when people come over, but I am loving having Pandora playing music all day.

We are basically settled in and functioning with a routine. I still have a lot of decorating decisions to make and I need to organize our schoolroom, but that's it.

Tomorrow the girls have their initial visit with a new pediatrician. I've been wanting to get in with this guy for years so I'm really excited about making the switch. Then we are heading to Little Rock to pick up my cousin, Kathryn. She is going to spend the week with us and help me decorate. She will also be spending a chunk of time with our grandparents helping Grandma take care of her house and of Grandpa. He pretty much needs constant attention these days, unless he's sleeping. Which is a good portion of the time, actually.

I have been dreaming of PW's malted chocolate chip cookies for several days now and I broke down tonight and made some. Well, I'm actually in the process of making them.  It's very pleasant in the kitchen right now. It smells like cookies. The dishwasher is making a quiet humming noise. Michael Buble is playing on the fridge . (chortle, chortle) The countertops are clean and shiny. I'm sitting at the bar enjoying my time on the computer. The only thing that would make it better is if Jason was here with me.

I had a nice visit with some of our neighbors this evening. They have lived here for years and said when their youngest girl was little, there were four different families with girls her age in the cul-de-sac. I think that would be so neat, but right now they are all the middle aged parents of those original young girls who are now grown-ups themselves.  I think there are two families with young boys but we haven't met them yet. We do have good friends with little girls that live just up the road, but they told us today that they may be moving away soon. That always happens to us. In fact, the 6 days that we have lived here are the longest we have gone without someone moving away from us. Usually, they move right before. Doesn't make us look to good, does it. Lol!

That's pretty much all that happened today. Wasn't too bad of a day. Had a visit from some family. Got a musical fridge. Ending the night with cookies. Hard to beat that. :)

New Home

We are in. And I have to say that the unpacking is going incredibly well. I need to organize my closet and the schoolroom and then we will be settled. There is still the matter of decorating but my cousin, Kathryn, is coming for a week and she has a knack for that sort of thing. I really, really, really want to paint a couple of the rooms so that they can be officially crossed off the list, but the budget says that's going have to wait. And that's ok. We also have a very empty den because we ran out of furniture. But that's ok, too. I don't mind and Jason won't either. It won't stay empty forever.
We have had a lot of quiet moments in this house so far because ASPHALT. The girls have been obsessed with riding their bicycles and scooters and once again, I have no problem with that. They can ride to their hearts' content. I also have gotten back in to the habit of going to bed with a clean kitchen. I think it's the dishwasher that makes the difference for me. It's like I'm cheating. It's too easy.
I've started bribing my children. If they go to bed five times without any fuss or calling out for me, they get a prize. Well, actually they have to immediately brush their teeth and get pajamas on when I say it's bed time, and then go to bed easily for it to count. No asking for food or having an onset of 100+ ailments. And the bribing is working so I have had very easy bedtimes since we've been here. The prize is nothing major, just things like a new plastic cup (.89 cents at Target) or a tube of chapstick, but it is such an exciting thing to them and that's what matters.
So that's pretty much it for now. I have a ballgame in my near future and I'm going to try to remember to take the good camera. That gives inspiration for new posts.

P.S. Our house needs a name. Help.