Moving Violations

I am trying to decide whether or not it's worth it to try to get any more boxes moved over from the house next door. It means herding the kids back and forth, and the ornery one is in a particular awful mood this morning. On the other hand, I am out of paper towels and my washer is out of commission so cloth ones are in short supply. I think I have a tool to help the one in a bad mood, but it is next door, and again, getting over and back is going to be a fight. I guess I'll have to try. It is so hard to plan right between houses. Situations like this have drained my energy and brain power. I am about to say something I may take back later. I think that either moving or watching kids when you're not quite unpacked is enough to try to do, but both at once is impossible. Yesterday I was driving the kids to Costco to get some little thing; really it was just an excuse to stay in the car for an extra hour. I noticed a police motorcycle ahead, checked my speed and the posted limit, and wasn't that surprised when I got pulled over. The guy was super nice, I must say. Later in the day I was taking a little reading break, and then stood up and hit my head on a light fixture hanging in the middle of the room. I'm just not used to it yet. So I got a goose egg. I think both of these things happened because I am so scattered from moving.

Outside the box

We are relocating, for the second time in less than six months. It was wise to rent first and then buy, but it does mean that we have an extra move. Fortunately, this one isn't far away. Tonight as I was packing up a box of my kids' blocks I realized part of the reason why moving is so hard for me - I want to figure out what I think is the best way to do everything first, and then do it. Trouble is, by the time I figure out the absolute best way of doing it, I could have done it sufficiently three times over. Now I know what my perfectionist, idealistic friends are thinking. That anything less than the best is not worth doing. But for me, it is to the point of paralysis sometimes. As I was packing up this box of blocks, which are irregularly shaped, I was rearranging them as I went, to find the best possible fit. I have tried arranging these blocks before; there is no perfect way to do it. No matter what, the lid just won't quite fit. And since I was just going to carry them by hand from my current house to our new house, it didn't have to be perfect. I really wish it could be. I want every little thing to be just divine - in both the spiritual and aesthetic sense (which makes me wonder if maybe those expressions are different perspectives on the same impulse). But sometimes, I think, I miss the forest for the trees. The main goal is really to get the blocks portable from here to there. Anyway, I had this tiny epiphany and shared it with my husband to try to show him I was growing in some way. He just nodded, and said, "Yeah." So obvious to him, I guess. He's more of a Git 'er Done guy, which is what I knew I needed.

Thanksgiving

We had our first Thanksgiving as returned Arizonans today.  It was sweet!  We got to host my parents - what better reason to push to get unpacked and settled!  I was thrilled.

My mom knew I was going to make cupcakes, so she surprised me with an early Christmas gift - a cupcake tree!  I arranged the top two tiers with the 10 turkey-topped cupcakes I made for today.  Even before I served them these little guys had brought so much fun to my life, but then when I put them on this stand my family said they looked like a choir - like a living Christmas tree pageant, if you've ever seen one of those.  They're right, of course.  Just imagine them singing, and try not to smile.

Speaking of smiles, I give you here my little boy enjoying finger foods from one of the pilgrim hat style combination plate and dipping-trays I made.  This was another super fun little project.

I liked when I took the picture below that I got so many people in the shot.  Mom and I were standing in my kitchen, just on the other side of that counter with the food on it.  That's my little girl with her Indian-style hat on that she made earlier this week.  My husband was in the kitchen most of the morning, since he made the turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, and heated up the gravy.

Well, below is what it's all about; what we have to be thankful for.  I am thankful that my kids got to host their grandparents for Thanksgiving, that they saw them a week or so ago, and will see them in another week or so.  It's rather magical.

Side note: my daughter is wearing an outfit that my mom gave me at a baby shower for Kyrstin four years ago.  I just discovered yesterday that it would fit her, and was thrilled!  It has a bee motif.  On the bib it says, "Bee attitudes," and it is embroidered with attitudes I want to teach Kyrstin: Bee kind, Bee patient, Bee happy, and Bee thankful.  Seemed perfect for today.

We tried to get family pics for our Christmas card - it's all happening so fast! - but the kids wouldn't sit still.  We'll try again next weekend.

I've been trying to teach Kyrstin about Thanksgiving; we have a children's storybook that, I think, fairly represents the story from both the native American and European points of view.  It states as fact that there was a group of people who did not appreciate the way they were forced to worship, and so they were looking for another place to live.  Meanwhile in BSF we have been studying Abraham, and looking at Hebrews 11, which describes Abraham and others looking for the promised land.  

"[T]hey admitted they were strangers and aliens on the earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them" (13c-16).

I thought a lot about the faith and endurance of those early settlers.  I know they could have returned on the Mayflower when it sailed back after that first winter, but they didn't; they worked it out  because they believed.  Deep down they must have had the conviction of things not seen, and they stood and walked by faith.  It is a courageous legacy, one that I hope that I can grow and pass on to my family.

Thus far the Lord has helped me

I read this week in my bible study about how when Noah emerged from the Ark one of the first things he did was to set up an altar and worship God.  Well, we have made it to this point in our journey, and thus far, the Lord has helped us.  So this post is a notch in the tree to help me think on all of God's blessings.

Here are a few specific things He has helped us with already:

- getting my husband a job
- finding us a place to live
- finding buyers for our house
- helping us find a church
- actually physically getting out here
- finding us a really great grocery store (sounds silly but I love it)
- sweet reunions with family once we got out here

These are some pretty big pegs.  I was challenged to change my thinking earlier this week.  One of the things the Lord used was this oldish song by Out of the Grey, which I heard on my TV's "Contemporary Christian" channel.  Good songs have staying power, and I'm glad the Lord brought this one out of the dust as a mile marker for me.

All things weird and wonderful

So today is Halloween. Always a weird day, but especially for us since we literally just moved yesterday. I have been full of all kinds of expectations. Right now our house is a box forest and we are all tired. As I ran an errand today I had to admit that I was feeling kind of weird. Not at home. A bit lost even. Then I realized that its going to take awhile for everything to feel normal, and that that's okay. In the meantime I have the comforting assurance that we are right where we are supposed to be, and that is wonderful.

Here are a few pics of weird and wonderful moments: prepping the caravan, driving through a border patrol station just inside the Easter arizona border, and gazing upon mountains and desert trees from the back porch.

Just in case you're (p)interested

Ah, delay! What grief it has sometimes been to me, and yet, what a blessing in disguise! It is a delay that allows me to write this post, sitting here in front of this fire.

We are shifting our deeply-rooted lives 1000 miles west. That is a big ship to turn around. It takes a little more time than we thought.

I've been taking pics of things I think will be my last, like this cup of coffee brewed in my house. Please excuse my hair. I told my husband that I felt like packing up the coffeemaker would be the point of no return. Well, it's not sealed up yet, but I'd kinda rather not get it back out tomorrow, since I washed the carafe. That seems like boring news for the Internet.

Okay, so here's something kind of fun. Pumpkin spice bagels! Yahoo! I'm enjoying all the pumpkin ness.

I'm not on Pinterest, but it benefitted me the other day when I asked my girlfriends for advice on packing up my necklaces. An idea from Pinterest was to thread skinny ones through a straw so they didn't get tangled. So I did. If I were on Pinterest, I'd post this idea. I decided to roll up my busy necklaces in a towel, like so. It made a little necklace log that was easy to pack. TAda! I don't think this is super original, but it was a good solution.

This huge, bright truck is in my driveway. Isn't it pretty? The kids have had a great time running up and down the ramp. Here is my hubs, who essentially wore himself out yesterday and today, loading said vehicle.

So, we're to the point where the house looks like this. And we still have stuff like this in the garage. (Pic was taken during the day, FYI.). So there is just enough left to do that by taking an extra day we can enjoy this fire tonight, rest up, and then wrap up properly and without strain.

Oh yeah, one more pinteresty thing - I saw these apple nachos a site with a other fall recipe I like, and made them for the kids a few times. Nutella a d pb. They LOVE them. Who wouldn't, right? Do other families also go through a jar of Nutella per week, or is it just us, and the novelty of it?

So anyway, in case you're pinterested, we're a day behind but doing fine.