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.

Tuesday

We moved in yesterday evening. It was basically a smooth night. I accidentally left the shower things in Mom's car so that wasn't convenient, but this morning I went and picked them up and everyone is now nice and fresh. This evening, after supper, we all went out in the yard and threw a football and a little rubber ball, picked up some trash, rode bikes and just enjoyed each other's company. It felt wonderful to be able to play outside and not have little neighbors running up and trying to join in on the bonding. It felt wonderful to have plenty of yard in which to play. It felt wonderful to put all four girls to sleep in the same room, sweetly lined up in their beds. It felt wonderful to have everyone go to sleep with out any fuss. It feels wonderful to sit here beside Jason and enjoy our new home. Yes-in-deedy, I'm going to like living here. 

Saturday

We are still plugging away at the rent house. The kitchen is totally put together which feels like a giant hurdle has been crossed. I think I may go tomorrow afternoon and get the computer and wi-fi up and running. Then on Monday, we should be able to move our clothing and dressers over from my parents' house. 

This past week, the construction workers finally started on mom's new kitchen. Nora has enjoyed chatting with the four men as they work and sharing their peanut butter crackers during break time. Yesterday, we left as they were leveling with string. When we got home, we found this by the front door. 

Love my babies. 

Making progress

Slowly but surely we are making progress. Tomorrow should be the most dramatic day as far as "moving in" goes. We've almost emptied one of our two storage buildings and if I get those boxes sorted and put away, we should be able to sleep there tomorrow night. Woo Hoo for new adventures!

Our Temporary Home

So, I don't know if I ever posted about where we are living now. We are staying with my parents while the house we are going to rent is getting all spruced up for our arrival. We have taken over the back two bedrooms and just this morning, I feel like we are basically settled in and there are places for all the things. And that's an important for me; I need things to have places. This was the first morning since we have been here that I could just take my time after waking up. We didn't have any chiro appointments, we didn't have any dentist appointments, we didn't have any doctor appointments, we didn't have boxes to unpack, we didn't have items piled up to take to the storage unit, and there wasn't laundry piled up waiting on me to wash, fold, etc... I unhurriedly dressed the girls and cleaned the kitchen. I unhurriedly folded a load of laundry with Mom. I'm unhurriedly eating breakfast while typing this post and in a few minutes, I'll unhurriedly make my way to the  shower. It's been a nice, calm, quiet morning. Hooray!

It took five years but we are out!

The first day:
Well, we made it. We packed and packed and packed and loaded and loaded and loaded and then unloaded and unloaded and unloaded. Apparently the theme of this summer is It Shall Not Happen Easily or Without Drama. During the course of moving everything from the house to the storage unit, Jason hurt his ankle very, very badly. By supper time, he was in some intense pain and was unable to walk at all. He's now in a brace and using crutches to get around.

Bedtime:
It took a good hour or more of crying and discipline, but we finally convinced Nora that she had to stay in her bed and go to sleep. Then, I got the three other girls to settle down and drifted off myself. And then around three or four, Claire woke up with a stomach virus and that's what we did for the rest of the morning.

I still have to go back and clean out the pantry and the fridge. And I still need to vacuum, clean the bathrooms, etc... But then we are finished with the ol' house on Christy Lane. Blogging might be a little spotty this week because we have a lot of appointments but I promise I'm going to try to get back to it as soon as I can.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

These posts are going to start sounding redundant. We woke up, we packed and unloaded and we fell into bed. Yesterday, Joshua and my cousin, Seth, came and moved the trampoline, swing set, picnic table, hammock and then helped me finish loading all of the items from the barn into the trailer and the explorer.  That was a major one to cross off my list. Today's agenda includes unloading all that stuff and then going home and showering. Ahh, showering. Then I need to cook some food for church tonight. A night off from all this moving stuff sounds very nice. Comment and tell me what's been going on with you? I could use some distraction.

Daily Life

I didn't really get much packing done yesterday. I packed up one of the three hall closets. This packing thing is stressful. I don't think it's stressful for me in the same way that it's stressful for others. My stress comes from the mess and clutter that is EVERYWHERE.  For some reason, I feel like I should be keeping my house just as picked up and normal looking as it was before and it's proving to be very difficult. You can't even see the top of the dining room table. As I'm going through the rooms, I'm looking for odds and ends and then categorizing them in piles on the table. And while that will be nice for unpacking, it's making me go crazy right now. And I can't bring myself to put things in a box that don't make sense together.  For example, I went around collecting candles, candlesticks, etc... and there was still a lot of room in the box. I had plenty of items that were on the table that needed to be packed, but I spent five minutes walking around until I decided that lamps would be appropriate to pack with candles. So I packed up most of the lamps. See? I'm crazy.

In other news, the girls have been finishing up the last week of their swimming lessons. The older three can now all do the breaststroke, freestyle, the backstroke and sort of dive. Eily is hilarious to watch do the freestyle. She swishes her arms around as fast as she possibly can and kicks and pumps her little legs with all the energy and strength she can muster, but she moves across the water at a pace that is just barely faster than not moving at all. She's just so tiny that she doesn't go anywhere. The teacher always grabs the top of her swimsuit and pulls her along the pool and when Eily gets to the other side, she pops that head up, grins from ear to ear and says, "I did it, Mama! The whole way!!" It's adorable.

Night before last, Claire had her retainer on the dresser beside her bed, and was taking a drink of water. As she put her metal thermos-type-thing back down on the dresser, she slammed it on top of the retainer.  SNAP.  So today we will spend some time and money at the dentist have new molds and a new retainer made.

Babies are starting to stir so I need to get off here. I hope you all have a fantastic day!

I'm back!

Good morning!
We got in from San Antonio around ten-thirty last night and I'm so thankful that no one started waking up until nine this morning. While we were in Texas, the inspection passed and the appraisal was approved and sent through. We move out in 13 days and all I have packed is two blankets. I had a mini panic attack this morning as I realized what all is ahead of me in the next two weeks, but Mom calmed me down and I rolled up my sleeves and dove in.  First thing on my list is to go get the Explorer and trailer and then go to Magazine and empty the boxes in the trailer into Jason's studio. Then I'm driving back and I'm going to start loading things from the barn. Then, it's just going to be back and forth all week between the house and the storage unit, which is unfortunately a 45 minute drive. But later on, we will be glad we stored so close to the house we will be moving in to.

We had a wonderful time in SA with our friends and I have a post and pictures coming about that, but right now I'm going to go get busy!