We made it!

We made it. It has been 6 days of crazy chaos where we pretty much never stopped. I can't even describe the last 3 days to you! Except that....I will, of course:) After I get a good night's rest.

So, Budget decided to send us the biggest truck they had because they felt like it! No extra charge:) We had plenty of room! We got rid of so much stuff in this past month but we still had plenty to put in the truck. Darn it! Guess we need to do some more purging!

 

Ben and I got up at 6 am this morning (the kids were already in Ohio) and finished the last bits of cleaning (we spent 8 hours cleaning yesterday after packing up the truck!) and packed up all the last minute things. It still took us 2 hours so we didn't get on the road until just after 8 am. Ben, a former CDL class B license holder drove this monster of a truck like a pro! Seriously, wow! (side note: Happy Father's Day, Ben! I got you this really huge truck to drive and an expensive one way ticket to Ohio!! It will be a memorable one for you!:)

I have had a hard time processing all of this and have been so focused on getting everything done that I haven't let my guard down enough to feel the emotion of this change. I started to feel it after we said goodbye to our best friends in Chicago on Friday night. We drove home and it started to hit me what we are doing and who we are leaving behind. But today, closing the door to our home for the last time was hard. I had a book on tape to listen to in the car as I followed our Monster Truck but I just needed to drive in silence for a bit and do some praying and just feeling.

I don't think it will fully hit me until we have a place of our own. For now it just feels like we are visiting like we always do. (except for the fact that all of our earthly possessions just got loaded into a storage unit!)

 

I was very bad (I know!) and snapped a couple blind shots of the skyline as we drove by...

 

 

Goodbye for now, Chicago. I promise to write you a better tribute when I unpack my brain....

Our New Home!

Here is the long-awaited video of our new home! Keep in mind that it isn't "perfectly clean" (I mean, really, I'm pretty sure it's impossibly to have a perfect house with many small children) but I'd say it's pretty good for less than two weeks move-in!

Enjoy!

Happy

Halloo, from the land of spacey-internet! Latest update: we should be getting internet (not through AT&yuck) Wednesday so you'll be hearing from me regularly then:)

It's been an incredibly exhausting week! Not only have we (mostly me:) been attempting to unpack and settle in, I have also been driving a minimum of 2 hours a day back and forth to school. Soooo tiring but a couple of friends have been kind enough to allow me to hang out in the mornings to save me another hour of driving, which was much appreciated!

We are crazy about our new place, new neighborhood and certainly not least, our new landlords! It is night and day from our last place and we are really looking forward to our time here.

I enjoyed some quiet time (my first full day here) today with Z and E while Ben did school drop-off/pick-up on his way to/from work. It was nice to relax, unpack a little, do laundry (NOT IN A LAUNDROMAT!!!) and play games with Zakkai.

Tomorrow we're off to a birthday party and probably more unpacking:) Pics/video soon to come!!

Woo!

Hallelujah! I'm alive! Wondering why you haven't heard from me?

Two reasons:

1)We moved! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a worthy enough reason to explain many things, including mismatched outfits, circles under the eyes, spaghetti every night and last but not least, blog-neglect.

2)We have no internet. To summarize our internet problem in a nutshell: Stupid AT&T (and yes, I mean that), waste of much of my precious time, supposed old cable lines, wanting to drill holes in the wall, more waste of my time, phone calls, frustration, being given the run-around and finally, cancelling and severing with great finality all connections to AT&T forever. Goodbye.

So. How am I even posting now, you ask? Good question! It's taken me an FOREVER on the teeniest little signal you ever did see to get enough internet-juice to post this. Just so you wouldn't think I fell off the back of the moving truck.

That's how much I love you.

I am working desperately on the issue and hoping to come back live soon! Don't give up on me, okay?

And before I sign off from my measly internet signal, I want to give a BIG, BIG, BIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGG thank you to the people who helped us move! That would be including Mr. B & Ms. E, two of the truest friends and sweetest people you will ever meet in your life, Mr J., who is like a member of our family, his father in law, who showed up unexpectedly and was an answer to prayer....

And most of all (because they drove 6 hours to help) to Ben's mom, who took amazing care of our boys all weekend so they wouldn't be underfoot (a HUGE help), made their weekend into an great adventure and blessed us with gifts for our new home, and to my mom (who now has pneumonia so please say a prayer!) and step-dad, who are work-horses and moving geniuses and without whom this wouldn't have been possible.

We cannot express our thanks to all these people for the love (and sweat) they showed us this weekend! We love you forever and thank you from the bottom of our newly air-conditioned hearts!!

P.S. As soon as I get internet (hopefully!), video-tour of the new digs for all interested parties. Woohoo!

Race

I'm positive that you are heart-broken over my lack of posting about moving and stress last night:) I'm terribly sorry!

It has been a crazy two days and I fell asleep at 8:30 last night with a terrible migraine. Yuck! Today between the hours of 7:30-12pm, I went to the laundromat to wash all last minute stuff including bedding while Ben dropped the boys off at school and dropped around 175 books off at his school library (That only leaves 135 books that he has out now!). Just think on that for a moment.....

And then Ben picked me up, we picked Z up, we rushed home and I met with the federal investigator (who was waiting outside for me by the time we pulled up)about E's sweatshirt incident while AT THE SAME TIME, the landlord's realtor company brought people through our horribly messy and embarrassingly half-packed, box-strewn place. It was really fun.

The afternoon has been filled with feverish packing for me (and children-tending, of course!) while S and B dropped a load off at the new place and got more boxes.

Because you can never have enough boxes.

Annnnnnddd...aside from Eliana deciding that it would be a great day to start screaming at the top of her lungs for the pure joy of it....that was our day!

The race is on!

Goodness

Tonight's Breakfast For Dinner is brought to you by Pumpkin. And Goodness. And Love.

Best tradition I ever started!

Usually we have fresh fruit with our special Sunday night dinners, only I am biding my time til the 1st when the ole' budget starts over and I can fill our fridge again!

So I was scrounging around in the seriously depleted pantry, hoping for a genius idea to spring out at me to serve with our scrambled eggs, when I discovered the last unopened can of pumpkin leftover from the winter. (not that it's really spring here yet.)

I toyed with the idea of making pumpkin waffles but since that would require making syrup, too.....I decided to look for a different recipe.

Meet Pumpkin Coffee Cake. My new best friend. (Well, as much as a food can be a best friend anyways:)

DEFINITELY a must-try recipe, my friends!! Esp if your weather is yuck-o like ours is and you haven't banned oven-use for the next 3 months or so yet.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup flour

2 TB cold butter, cut into small pieces

Cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 c-1 c white sugar (recipe calls for 1 cup~think next time I'll reduce it)

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream (I substituted vanilla yogurt)

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour (would substitute 1/2 whole wheat flour next time!)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I also added extra cinnamon!)

1/4 tsp salt

Preparation:

1. Combine topping ingredients, except butter, and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. In small bowl, combine pumpkin, sour cream (or yogurt) and vanilla. Mix well. In another small bowl, combine dry ingredients well.

4. Add pumpkin mixture and flour mixture to butter mixture alternately (How many times can I say mixture in one sentence!!) and beat on low speed until just blended.

5. Divide batter between 2 greased 8-inch round cake pans. Sprinkle topping over both and dot with butter pieces.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Fantastic! If you wanted to be sneaky, you could add all sorts of good things to this (carrot or squash purees, shredded zucchini, etc). The boys inhaled it!

Think about us this week or say a quick prayer or two~it's going to be a doozy of a week! B and I sat down to work out our schedules for the week and especially the last few days of the week are so crazy we have it scheduled hour by hour.

Plus it would be great to pray that we have enough help and that all goes smoothly! Thanks!

Tidbits

Here we sit, steep in the land of moving. Surrounded by boxes.

Surrounded by packing tape, sharpies and labels. But most importantly....surrounded by lots of stuff that needs to go inside the boxes. There are certain times in my life that I have wished I could be like Jeannie in "I Dream of Jeannie." 

This is one of those times. Wouldn't it be cool to just blink and it all would get done instantly? 

*I made some headway with moving details today, in between contacting our current landlords about a shorting, buzzing wire that we have inside one of our light switches. I might be crazy but...I'm pretty sure that's a fire hazard... And it's in the bedroom where E sleeps. (Formerly known as our bedroom!)

They never called me back.

*This afternoon while I was preparing dinner, the boys sat at the kitchen table doing homework. Real homework for Samuel and "homework" for Zakkai, which consists of practicing his letters in a special workbook we have. He loves having homework like Samuel! He worked very hard and set it aside at dinner, asking if he could do some more homework tomorrow before dinner;)

I should make a video of this to show him when he is a teenager.....

*The boys actually ate salad for dinner tonight! It is something we have been slowly progressing towards. First I would give them the veggies that were in B's and my salad and then I started adding little bits of lettuce on their plates at certain meals (like with tacos) but tonight (a historic moment that I shall forever remember) they actually ate their own bowls of salad!

I had hope that they could eat it after they recently gobbled up TWO big helpings of a salad our good friend, Miss D, brought over recently. Her salad (clearly highly superior to my salad:) always has bits of fruit and nuts in it, which the boys apparently adore!

This day was a long time in coming:) Hip Hip Hooray!

*Not too much else (exciting enough anyways) to report here today.

Off to bed at a decently early hour! This might be a historical moment, too....

Zest

Well! I got a bit of my zest back today! I hit a motherlode jackpot of free boxes on craigslist today which is helpful and spent a lot of time doing a (much-needed) scouring of the kitchen, mopping and all.

I think everyone probably has a room (or more!) that really stands out to them as being important to keep clean. It might be your entry way (if you have one) because it's the first thing you see when you walk in, or your bedroom because it's your "haven" or your bathroom..(because you spend a lot of time in it?:). For me, it's the kitchen! It drives me insane to have a nasty and/or partially cleaned kitchen. Which often happens on or around the weekends when it's somebody else's turn to clean it.

I shall not name names.

It stifles my cooking-creativity (what little I have anyways!), my desire to be in the room and makes me in general feel overwhelmed and gross! We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, too, cooking, doing homework, crafts, eating, etc. Tonight I actually enjoyed being in there with my family! Now if only I could keep it clean...

Samuel is starting to adjust to the idea of moving. He's been pretty upset about it but part of him is intrigued with the idea of having kids to play with (there are kids that live in the buildings around us) and some of whom he will go to school with! I also know the draw of having green grass (gasp!) right outside is a winner, too! Imagine grass. Oh you have some? Well, don't judge, okay? We only see grass about 3 times a year when we visit family!

Zakkai is my happy go-lucky kid so he is excited about the move and wants to help me pack all his toys up! Right now. It takes a lot of convincing on my part to assure him that he is going to want to play in the next 2 1/2 weeks and might want to leave some of his toys unpacked:) He is still doing awesome at using the potty (and to clarify; it's not numero uno that we've been having trouble with...it's the other~the nasty, if you will!) and has gone more consecutively (he's a regular kind of guy!) than ever before! So proud of him!

Eliana is starting to figure out getting on her hands and knees more and more everyday. She looks like an inchworm a lot of times when she scoots backwards:) Just when we get her sleeping settled (AGAIN), she always has some new development that throws it all off! Now she'll wake up crying because she's stuck on her tummy in the corner of the crib, unwillingly getting on her hands and knees. I can only imagine what it will be like when she gets to that terrible stage of pulling herself up and then crying for help because she can't get down!!

Anyways, she's a cutie pie and crazy stages or not, we adore her:) We adore all 3 of our munchkins!!

Hoping for some more "zest" tomorrow!

Mrs Simplicity

All this talk and impending pressure of moving has re-kicked my derriere into gear in terms of organizing and simplifying!

I took a brief hiatus. Okay, actually I was feeling pretty down this past month and lost my interest in doing a lot of things, including tossing el-junko.

But. With less than 3 weeks to de-scarify my home so any poor soul who comes to help us doesn't run away screaming, I have to get busy!

Remember this?

I've been continuing my read of this fantastic book and my high first opinion of it goes unchanged. What a great book! I love that she challenges you to decide what your priorities are as a family and to arrange your home in a way that reflects those priorities.

For example: She says to walk through your rooms and ask yourself questions like, "What is this room used for?" "Who uses this room?" or more specifically, something I am hoping to change, "Does the tv have to be the focal point of the living room?" (a.k.a. all furniture arranged around it in adoration).

There are also 2 key questions to ask yourself about the items in your home. 1)Is it useful? 2) Is it beautiful?  If the answer is no...toss it! (or donate or sell:)

I am finding these tools really helpful as I am starting to pack up our belongings once again; many things that I have faithfully dragged along with us over 3 states and 6 apartments, including things that are neither useful or beautiful!

It has been so freeing for me to let go of things that I have held on to for so long whether I needed them or not. But the best part, the part I am looking forward to the most, is the author's idea that once you get your home simplified, chaos-free and organized, you will have more time for the things that are important to you and fun for you!

And for me those things are spending time together as a family NOT in front of the t.v. but rather reading together, playing games, and enjoying one another and also personally, crafting. I can't wait to be organized, clutter-free and have more time (and hopefully energy) for doing things that I love!

So here's to my future organized, clutter-free life! And an easier move..hopefully:)

Big

 News!:

 For several reasons, we've decided...

 to make a big change around here..

We're moving!

Yup, that's right. Again.

It's all happened pretty fast...well, after months and months of prayer and many "What in the world are we going to do next year???" questions anyways..

This next year doesn't look anything like we hoped it would and it's been really difficult to let go of those "dreams" for now but we must and we did. Or are trying anyways:) So. Since we are here for the next year while Ben finishes up his dissertation, we had to make some decisions to fix some of the "problems" we are facing. (i.e. bad school situation for S, bad landlords, no church or community, etc)

We found a place in the suburbs that will fit our needs so much better and so I have 3 weeks to pack us up! Good thing I've been getting rid of lots of stuff over the past few months..(last year's move was a real eye-opener..) because I've gotta get busy!

Oh yikes...did I say 3 weeks??

Our New Home!

Thought you might like a few sneak preview pics of our new home to be 2 weeks from today (yikes!)!! We met one of our landladies today and got the keys. She is an extremely sweet older polish lady who adored the boys on sight...which, of course, is a great way to a mother's heart! haha. I would've loved her anyways:) She welcomed us so warmly and genuinely!


The front of our new apartment house:) We are on the 2nd floor.

The kitchen, which is really spacious! However, is sadly lacking much counter space~there is only one counter space next to the stove. I'm sure we can find a way around it though! And did I mention there is a pantry! I'm in love:)

The big window in the "dining room" area.

Looking from the dining room into the living room. It's really just one big open room.

The front porch! And Ben laying down our very strict porch rules:) The landladies are so concerned with the boys' safety that they are getting estimates for putting extra railing on top of the ledge!

We finally nailed down some moving details today like the moving truck, etc, which felt good. I am collecting a decent stash of boxes, although I know I will need tons more. It's amazing how quickly you can fill up a box!

Everytime we have seen the apartment or signed our lease, we feel more and more peaceful about this move and feel that it will be really good! We are looking forward to having our friends and family come visit though...hint, hint:)