Tuesday Riddles

Q: What's the guaranteed result of jumping up and down because two rooms are completely box-free?

A: Josh will bring home a car full of boxes from his parents' house, most of which go in those two rooms.

Q: How many DVDs really fit on the shelf we bought at IKEA over the weekend?

A: Half of them.

Q: What is Hudson's new favorite Crepe from 407 Cafe?

A: Mine. (Capresa. I don't blame him.) 


Q: Why is it important to bring Jasmine grocery shopping?

A: She's the one who can find your toothpaste. And the face soap will be right next to it. You rock, Kiddo!

Q: What's the prettiest palm tree ever?

A: Whichever one you're looking at.

Monday Morning

I woke up SO ready to take on the day.
...to re-alphabetize our DVDs and put them on their new shelf
...to wash all the laundry and get it put away
...to help the kids find homes for more of their toys
...to shop online for more storage things for the kitchen
...to have a great day of normal school. (we haven't had a school room for this entire school year, which started in May)

So far, at 9:45, it's had mixed results.

Laundry's going. The kids' games are up in Hudson's closet. I found things that I think should work for the kitchen.
But school...it's off to a very mixed start.
They rocked their math and phonics, but Jasmine decided poetry (something new and different!) was pure torture.
I read them Frost's "A Girl's Garden" and we talked about what the poem said. Then we listened to the Frostiana choir piece while they were supposed to draw a picture from something in that poem.
You would have thought I was asking her to kiss a tarantula.

(She did finally draw the picture, with much kicking and screaming and remininscing on my part on what she was like at 3. I forgot just how much more mellow she is most of the time now!)

Hey, don't you love the way the school room looks?? We went to IKEA yesterday and bought those two white shelves with bins. It's one of two rooms that are now box-free. What a huge step! I'll try to get more pictures soon :)

How Not To make a cross-country move

1. If you own three coffee pots that take two different kinds of filters, it does very little good if the filters are packed in separate boxes from the pots. It's a guarantee that you'll find filters for one and the other coffee pot.

2. It's a brilliant idea to use your favorite towels to put on the very top of boxes to make sure it's completely full so it won't get crushed.
Until you want to take a shower. You'll have to open 30-40 boxes to find a single towel.

3. A great idea for keeping the kids from going insane on a 5-day car trip is to have a suitcase full of activities they've never seen.
Just remember to check all the batteries before you go.

4. Planning to stay for sunrise at the most beautiful lake in the world is a near-guarantee that you'll have rain.
It doesn't mean you won't get a beautiful picture anyhow.

Lesson: Learned

You might remember my former post about learning to love.
Now that we're actually moving away, I've wondered if I did, indeed, learn my lesson. Is it something that I'm carrying on with me?

After talking through it with a couple people, the answer is YES.

I did hate it here. I fought putting down roots. I struggled every single winter with the gray gloom, and struggled every day with the economic and spiritual darkness I felt every day.
But I was victorious. God showed me how to be thankful. Not just a light-hearted thankful, but truly and actually thankful. I've learned a new level of flexibility.
And I just realized this week how deep my roots really are.

If I'm completely honest with myself, I'm nervous about our upcoming move. Last time I moved to a different state I was 7. When I went to Turkey I was 22 and adventurous. Now I'm 35 and have three kids. We need new doctors, dentists, hairdressers, church, and friends. I am so very thankful for my group of homeschooling moms I can laugh and cry with, and for my other friends who encourage and push me.

I'm excited. I've wanted this for years and years. But the scene from "Tangled" keeps coming to mind, because right now I can completely relate to Rapunzel:


Rapunzel: I've been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be? 
Flynn Rider: It will be. 
Rapunzel: And what if it is? What do I do then? 
Flynn Rider: Well,that's the good part I guess. You get to go find a new dream. 

I'm so thankful for the things I've learned. I finally learned the lesson of being content in my situation, a lesson I hadn't learned when I was first given the opportunity (at 24-26, single and not sure where I was supposed to be or what I was supposed to be doing. I had no idea that it was possible to be content as a single woman, and now I can see that I was supposed to be learning that!!) I'm a walking testimony of how much God can change hearts.
I don't know how often I'll miss living here (unlike how often I'll miss my friends here, and occasionally Wegmans, DiBella's or Ted's), or how often I'll come visit, but I'm leaving with no resentment, no regrets, and a smile on my face about this time. Which is huge.