Getting Settled

I have very slowly been unpacking.  And by "unpacking," what I really mean is, "moving boxes into the room where they should go, and then just leaving them there."  I seem to be having a difficult time getting past that.  In my defense, though, there's usually a good reason for it.  In my room, the unpacked boxes are mostly full of Craig's stuff.  And most of it should probably be thrown away.  But he doesn't have time for unpacking, and I'm not throwing away his stuff without his permission, so it's just sitting there.

In Camille's room, I could unpack more, except she's always either a) asleep in her room or b) awake and demanding that I hold her.  To be in her room NOT holding her means she is screaming.  So those boxes will get unpacked the next time someone is visiting who wants to hold her while I unpack.  (Any takers?)  And the many many boxes of toys...  Well, sometimes I open a box and let the kids play with them.  And then they mostly just throw them all over the house and I am reminded of why I'm planning on selling all of them at the HOA's Fall Yard sale.  Then I throw them all back in the box (or make the kids do it, since they made the mess) and forget about them for a little longer.


But, to prove that I was making progress, I did manage to snap this picture the other day:

That's my car, actually parked INSIDE my garage!  I haven't managed to pull it into the garage since then, but it still makes me happy that I did it at all!  Progress, any way I can manage it...

Other than unpacking, it's been weird trying to fill my time.  I've never had so much time with all the kids and no Craig before.  If they're out of school, he always has been, too.  So this has been an adjustment.  I've switched to doing as much of my grocery shopping as possible at night-- it's hard enough to find everything you're looking for in a new store WITHOUT five little people interrupting you non-stop.  And I'm also trying to enjoy the unstructured time that we have.  Yesterday I decided to make a lasagne TOTALLY from scratch-- I even made the sauce, something I've never done before.  It wasn't even all that hard, and it was the best lasagne I've ever had.  (Thank you, Our Best Bites!)  Because, when you have absolutely nothing planned for the day, why not make your own sauce?

And about once a week or so, I'm trying to pull Bentley and Kendra aside for a little "Mommy School" time.  This is pretty short and laid back-- I just pick a topic and we talk about it.  So far we've discussed World War I and II, how to make movies, and dinosaurs.  I think next I might talk about Van Gogh, since kids are always fascinated by him.  Unless I decide to talk about something else instead.  It was Craig's idea that we do this, but I love that he suggested it, as it is something I always pictured myself doing with my kids, but then never got around to.

In fact, I realized this last week that I needed to step back and fix my parenting in a big way.  With all the craziness of the last couple months, I'd become about the grouchiest mom ever-- one of those moms who seems to be constantly snapping at her kids to just leave her alone and to stop making messes.  I felt kind of justified in my terrible attitude, but it quickly turned from a coping mechanism to just who I was.  And I didn't like that.  So I'm working on being more patient and turning back into a person who actually enjoys her kids, instead of someone who just tries to get away from them. 

So that, like so many other things in life, is a work in progress.

I'm hoping that eventually I can have some friends around here, too.  Everyone has been very friendly at church and in the neighborhood, but I seem to have forgotten how to take that next step and become actual friends...  I was filling out the school registration forms, and it occurred to me that I didn't know a single person who I could put down as an emergency contact here.   And then I sort of wanted to cry...

So yes, unpacking, parenting, meeting new people...  All works in progress.



Moving is hard.  {Sigh.}