Where We've Been

I find myself wanting to apologize for it being over a full month since the last time I wrote, and then I realize: no, I have five kids and the amount of stuff we've managed to squeeze in over the last month and nine days is pretty impressive. We've traveled through six states. We've moved out of an old home and into a new one. I ran a half marathon and spoke at a women's retreat. We went to a three day homeschool conference. The Man finished an old job and started a new job. We've looked for a church. We've made new friends.

We've had movers lose things (and cried about it). We've had movers break things (and resignedly accepted this to be our lot in life). We've filed impossibly confusing claims with the movers (and ate pints of ice cream to make it tolerable). We've acknowledged that most likely nothing will ever come of said claims (and rolled our eyes at the system). We've done a lot of online shopping to replace the items we will now probably never see again (and given the Amazon delivery guy a lot of extra work).

We celebrated the Man's birthday and Father's Day. We had our first three house guests (before we even had our stuff). We've done beach trips (and time in the mountains). We tracked down mailbox keys, flag-holders, and new doctors. We've had run-ins with bear and deer (but so far no gators). We've put away and thrown away and given away. We've found our new library and joined their summer reading program. We've read good books and watched a few good movies. We've sweated in the sunshine and rested in the breeze. We've cooked all the meals that make home feel like home again.

The kids have gotten tan and happy, and I have hidden in the shade and made close friends with my sunscreen. Trigger has lost half his body weight in fur and discovered that he likes the ocean when it's not freezing. The cats have delighted in giving us heart attacks at every stop by hiding under hotel beds and suitcases--and even now by hiding in the linen closet so that we think they've escaped the house and gotten eaten by a bear. Littles has toured the elementary school and survived his first legit assessment test. Tiny has upgraded to our former guest bed because Bruiser has officially taken the bottom bunk in what is now the "boy room". Bee is glorying in her "girly room" and trying to refuse entry to the boys. And Twinkle, ensconced in aforementioned girly room, has finally started sleeping through the night and learned how to say important things like "ball-ball" (pinecones) and "I wanna snack" (which, miraculously, means exactly what it sounds like).

There have been bike rides around the neighborhood and car rides into town and runs through the base. Most importantly there have been walks along the shore. There have been many nights sitting on the back porch talking but also afternoons snuggling on the couch--in the air conditioning--reading  The Chronicles of Narnia. There have been school mornings to finish out the semester and days of unpacking and figuring out where to hang the few pictures we have left and afternoons of running errands by piling hot and sweaty kids in and out of the car.

There have been short tempers and apologies. There has been yelling. There have been forever memories and sweet moments of family love. There has been whining. There has been growth. There have been meltdowns--and they weren't all by the kids. There has been thanksgiving.  There has been joy. There has been life.

So here I am: same song, second verse...just from a different state. Welcome back. And feel free to put in requests for what you want to hear about this summer, which then increases the chances of me getting back to you before July...