To the Grindstone

We have our final walkthrough for our townhouse at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning.

We are not ready.

Tonight there will be no rest for the weary.

Opposition in Order to Recognize the Good

There's a family in our ward that moved out of a rental last week and into a hotel while they wait for the house they're buying to be completed. When I learned this I told them they were welcome to come over and play and bring their laundry, because I know what it's like to live in a hotel. And today, they did.

While she talked about the trials of living in a hotel, I commiserated with her. And as I passed out snacks to her boys and read to them while she worked out details with her husband on the phone, I thought of how thankful I am to have had the experience of living in a hotel and to not be going through that now.

Breaking Tradition

Guess what we didn't do today?

It's something we did last year at this time. And the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that.

We didn't move.

No one came to our house and packed our belongings. No one hauled those boxes onto a truck to cart them to another part of the country.

And I am so happy about it.

Moving every summer for the last five years has been hard, even the first summer when we packed ourselves up and knew we would be back in twelve weeks. Yes, we embrace the adventure and find the positive things, but leaving friends and starting fresh so often has worn us out.

Tonight I am thankful that we are here and that we get to find adventures without finding a new address.

The (Sort Of) Tour

The kids and I spent time getting the house tidy after school today. Once they were all in bed, I looked around at the hung pictures and the Christmas decor and realized that this was the perfect opportunity to take pictures of at least a few rooms. Ready for a mini-tour?

This is what you see when you walk in through the front door. 

Here's a closer look at the mantel.

Next to the faux-fireplace is a short hallway. The first door leads to the basement, the second door goes to the laundry room (which is essentially a hallway to the garage), and the third is the bathroom door. There's a coat closet on the wall you can't see. On the other side of that wall you can glimpse the edge of the family room and the TV cabinet.

There's that hallway again, but this time you can see the coat closet. And there's more of the family room, including the Christmas tree and the homework desk in the far corner next to the sideboard. The playroom is visible on the right edge of the picture.

Here's the former dining room, current playroom. That wall of pictures took a slightly ridiculous amount of time, and it's still somewhat unbalanced. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to alter it.

Again, here's a closer look.

Now you can see that the playroom is right next to the front door.

And here's a glimpse of the library on the other side of the front door.

And now we're back to the fireplace, with a different glimpse of the library on the other side of the stairs. At the top of the stairs you can see the entrance to the girls' room (the dark open space) and the upstairs bathroom (where that sliver of light is shining from).

That concludes our tour for tonight!

Fun Over Fancy

This weekend I realized why I haven't been able to really finish setting up our house. The formal dining room had been sitting unused until a few weeks ago when the kids asked if they could turn the table into a fort. Sure, why not? Suddenly that room was very popular.

On Sunday I decided that a formal dining room was the wrong choice for us. Yesterday I figured it would be a good idea to turn a few rooms upside down and swap out the dining room for a playroom. The kids are thrilled. I probably should have planned the whole project out a bit more before I started moving furniture, but I think it'll work when it's done.

Hopefully.

Magical Monday

The kids had today off from school (happy Columbus Day or Canadian Thanksgiving, whichever you choose to observe), and we spent our time working hard. I told the kids that if we accomplished the task list that we'd only dented on Saturday, we could watch movies when we finished. I also told them that I wasn't going to keep reminding them, they had to stay on the job.

The list was pretty extensive. It included bathrooms and bedrooms and mopping and vacuuming and organizing. Peter was amazing! He was highly motivated by the secondary screentime choice: Minecraft. He was responsible for a large portion of what got done today. Phoebe was somewhat less engaged, but she cleaned her room, vacuumed, and emptied the trash cans. Cooper was quickly banished to his room for some unkind words and spent most of the day not doing much. Sophie read lots of books and played and mostly avoided any major mess-making.

By 4 o'clock the house was in the best shape it's been in yet. It's so good that I finally unwrapped our paintings and have started placing them.

The kids celebrated by watching Sleeping Beauty (per Sophie's request) and playing Minecraft. Well, one of them did. When Cooper realized I was serious that he couldn't participate in the fun until he had cleaned his room and the upstairs bathroom, he got to work. He joined in the movie watching about halfway through.

Days off like this are so rare. Usually it goes one of two ways: either we laze about and have a fun day that leaves the house in ruins, or I become Taskmaster Mom and the house gets cleaned while we all feel completely miserable. I loved that today was neither.

And I really love that the unpacking is nearly done!

Three Rooms Done

I finally finished the girls' room today. I'm not sure why it took so long, and I technically still need to put a dowel in the costume closet to really be done, but I'm calling it good.

 We decided to make the girls' room the playroom, which, now that I think about it, is probably why this project was so drawn out. We've had an official playroom since Washington, and I was sad to see it go. But the choice came down to a playroom or a home library.

And there's simply no competing with a library.

Phoebe liked the idea of sleeping in Toyland, until she envisioned the mess that would be generated on a daily basis. At one point she officially uninvited Cooper and Peter from ever playing in there. They were annoyed, but the LEGOs are in their room, so they didn't care that much. I quickly struck down the brother ban, much to her chagrin.

For those of you doing the math at home, we've had the keys to the house for three weeks, our belongings for two, and only have three rooms completed. This is our slowest move-in ever. We were waiting on some key elements, and most of those are now in our house and waiting to be built and/or mounted. My new goal is to be totally unpacked by General Conference, which is a week from tomorrow.

I don't know that it's a realistic goal, but it sure sounds like a nice one.

Sometimes Princess Anna Helps Me Unpack

And sometimes she finds her sister's sticker earrings and wears them like makeup.

I Might Have a Problem

I got a second wind tonight, so I decided to finally take a crack at our room. The Master bedroom is usually a low priority, so other than making the bed and folding the clean clothes we already had access to, I hadn't done much. After the kids were asleep, I broke into the big boxes stacked along our wall.

I found blankets that had been packed with shoes (those blankets now smell like feet), towels packed with cleaning supplies (my laundry pile is growing fast), and important family pictures packed with bathroom items like soap and toothpaste.

And I found all of these shirts and my jacket. I think I may need a plaid intervention...

Connected

Even though we still have lots of stuff in boxes, something happened today that makes us feel more moved in. We got internet! That means I can use my computer to blog instead of my phone, which is how I've been posting for a long time. Of course, I'm so tired that all I want to do is sleep, so I'm still just using my phone instead of finding my computer and turning it on.

But it's nice to know I have the option.

Two Rooms Done

The boys' room has joined the kitchen on my list of Rooms That are Complete. Well, I haven't put any pictures on the walls, but otherwise it's done. I don't like to hang any decorations until the whole house is unpacked; it's part of my process.

One Room Done

I sat in the kitchen last night after the kids went to sleep, basking in its finished beauty. I should have been working on other rooms, but I only had energy to meditate about putting them together, not enough for the actual process. Bryan taught a great Family Home Evening lesson last night about what it means to have a house of order. Slowly, slowly, we're working our way there.

We Have Stuff Again

"I so happy to have my toys! You so excited?"

Sophie was over the moon that her long lost toys were finally delivered today. As each stack of boxes was wheeled out of the truck and into our house she asked, "Those my toys?" It wasn't until the early afternoon that I was able to open one of those sought after boxes. She spent the remainder of the day happily engaged in rediscovering the toys.

The rest of us are pretty happy to have our belongings back as well. We all have real beds to sleep in tonight!

We've also begun the process of finding what didn't survive the move. So far the casualties include our fancy motion-activated kitchen trash can, a sturdy rolltop desk that we obtained the day before we moved, and a box full of King-size bedding that must have gotten wet some point. Our rocking chair is also a little worse for wear.

Despite those material losses, I am so happy to have our things back.

Coming soon: a post where I bemoan the oppressive excess of our earthly possessions. Several days of unpacking will be my muse...

The New Digs

The kids are registered for school and have a start date.

We have the keys to the new house and did our walk-through last night.

Everything is official!

Now we just need to wait for our stuff to be delivered next Thursday.

Want to see some pictures of our new space?

Part of the kitchen, look at all that cabinet space! And there's even more that isn't in the picture. That's a corner of the family room on the far right edge of the picture.

You're looking at the entryway, half bath, laundry/mud room, closet, door to the unfinished basement, and then a little bit more of the family room.

This is the den (I think it should be the library, Phoebe thinks it should be the party room) looking into the dining room. The kitchen is on the other side of that far wall, and that's still more of the family room in the distance.

The master bedroom.

The other side of the master bedroom.

This will probably be the girls' room, looking into the kids' bathroom.

Bryan and I spent many hours last night brainstorming about what will go where in the house. The kitchen is much bigger than our last one, though not big enough for our table, but has hard floors that are easy to clean. The actual dining room has carpet, which is not compatible with our children, so we're figuring that out.

I will take those first-world problems over being homeless any day of the week.

The Right Place

We're not going to be homeless!!!

HUZZAH!!!

A week after applying for a townhouse in the school district and ward that we felt very inspired to live in (which had exactly one other rental available, and yes, we had applied for that too), a week that was full of agonizing stress and fear and the kind of worry that makes it hard to breathe, after a Priesthood blessing from Bryan which counseled patience, we found out we will have a place to live for the next two years. Two years in one place!? That sounds like forever for us.

A week ago Monday we had two applications out, one in our preferred school district and ward, one in the other ward. The latter was our backup. As I was driving to the store with the kids, Bryan called to tell me that our second choice had turned us down because they didn't think we could afford it. I felt like someone had punched me. It was on the higher end of what we wanted to pay, but still within our price range. I had a hard time turning my anger and hurt off.

A new listing popped up in my email while the kids and I were shopping. The sting of rejection still fresh, I was not overly optimistic as I opened the link. I parked in the toy section to review the information. With a chaotic whirlwind of children surrounding me, I scrolled through pictures, a feeling of urgency growing in my chest. I called Bryan immediately and told him I would go see that house right away if possible. He looked at it while we spoke and we submitted an application without even seeing it in person.

The next morning we visited three potential homes, including the property we'd applied for. It was beautiful in the pictures, but I was afraid it would have some terrible and unlivable flaw, like stinking of cigarette smoke, an absolute no for this asthmatic. But it didn't. It was large and lovely and just lived-in enough that I felt comfortable having our kids there. After seeing only a few rooms, Bryan turned to me and mouthed the words, "This is it."

My response? "I know."

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. Our realtor sent daily notes to the owners' realtor, asking for an answer. Two other people had applied right away as well, the landlords wanted to make a fair choice. And so we kept waiting. We continued to look at other properties. We finally applied for one more, another beautiful home that was in the wrong school district and a different ward and would have been the same price as the home that told us no.

We prayed all week long, first that we would be able to live in the townhouse we had loved, then to live where we were supposed to live, then to just not be homeless. We only had a week left in corporate housing and that fact played in a continuous loop in my head. By Sunday night, we were desperate. We knew that school started in both districts the next day, and our kids weren't signed up anywhere. I even seriously thought about homeschooling them for a while, you know, while we lived in our van and showered at truck stops.

The blessing that Bryan gave me had calmed my nerves quite a bit. It was easier to remember that everything would work out. I held tight to the word "patience" from Thursday night, when I received the blessing, until Monday afternoon when we got the call. The house that we wanted had picked us. A wave of apprehensive relief washed over me at the news. Until the contract was signed, I was still going to be slightly on edge, but so much of the fear melted away.

We signed the contract yesterday and did all of the paperwork to register the kids for school. We hope to complete that process today. We'll get the keys tomorrow and our packed-away belongings will arrive a week later.

Thanks to all of you that included us and our housing search in your thoughts and prayers. I truly have a testimony of prayer, and of patience.

All Cop-Outs, All the Time

We haven't found a place to live. I could tell you the whole, long story, but my brain is weary. Instead I'll stick with: we still live in a hotel, we still don't know where we'll be going next.

All of my time is spent either child-wrangling or internet-scouring for a new home.

And that is why from here on out I plan to only do cop-out posts, at least for a while. If the mood strikes me, perhaps I'll actually write something, but I'm giving myself permission to mostly just find pictures to share.

Because I can.

Look Closely, Can You Find Someone That Climbed Out of Their Own Bed and Into Their Brothers'?

In Between

Our road trip is done. We arrived at our temporary housing tonight. Now we begin the great game of "Ninja Walk" so the people below us don't complain to the management about the herd of elephants stomping around above them...

Better Than a Hotel

We had to be out of our house last Wednesday (when the packers turned our possessions into a jungle gym of boxes), which meant we planned to stay in a hotel starting that night. When the Relief Society president heard this she insisted that we stay at her house instead. It's the same place we stayed when we were locked out.

I was hesitant because we were sticking around for five more days and I was sure that would be too much. I was wrong. She and her husband loved having us there. Their kids are grown and only one lives nearby. I think they enjoyed having kids in the house again. And, bonus, they have three boys, so the normal cacophony that follows us didn't bother them at all.

It was a wonderful blessing to stay in their home.

A Few of the Goodbyes

Our last two weeks in IL were packed to the brim with play dates and goodbyes. These are just a few friends that we will miss greatly. Also, they're the only ones I thought to take pictures of.

I worked with Brittany in the Relief Society Presidency at church. She is the best secretary I have ever seen. I should know, because I was a lousy one a few years ago. I was also her visiting teacher, but she did far more service for me than I was ever able to do for her. And her daughter Lydia was Phoebe's good friend, which always strengthens mom friendships for me.

Allison and I met at story time at the library. Her daughter Annabel and Phoebe got along swimmingly and liked to play after the short story time session was over, so we started getting together outside the library as well. She and I bonded over our shared love of literature. I will truly miss my friend and our discussions.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture, but some women in my ward had a little get-together to send me off. We just met at Red Robin one night after bedtime, but it was so fun. In many ways, this move is extra hard because of all the wonderful friends I've made.