Mama Blog

Sanford and Son

Who knew we had this much crap in our pantry??? I've now packed four good sized boxes slam full. I need to go on a "Use the pantry goods up first" cooking spree.

Emily's room is emptied except for furniture and some storage boxes in the closet. I'll start painting it tonight.

Lizzy's room is basically ready. The toy box goes as is. I'll need to strip the beds Friday morning still.

Katy's room is still in progress, as is our room. I'm leaving Steven's closet to him. My closet has been weeded through and needs the hang up clothes taken, shoes taken, and the curio cabinet of my Nanny's moved out.

Kitchen-ugh. It's a slow process when you're still trying to cook and wash and live out of it and pack it at the same time.

Office-ugh squared. The majority of doo dads are removed but there is still a massive amount of "good grief" in here.

Living room is a tower of boxes and stuff. Dining room is a mish mash of half done/half not. Laundry is still in use so difficult to empty.

I'm tired. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and didn't get up to exercise this morning. Lizzy was up a bit last night, around 3:45. By 8:00am all three girls were in the bed with me, asleep, so I stayed in with them. By 8:45 were all up and kicking.

I'm currently taking a short breather to collect myself before I jump back into the fray.

Now that I'm rethinking this, I'll pack tonight instead of paint Em's room. We'll have from Friday to Thursday to paint and get the cleaner here. All the packing has to be done by Friday at 9:00am.

My tendency to do the least essential things first in an effort to avoid the stressful "gotta-get-it-done-now" stuff has hit me full force with this move. Sigh.

This too shall pass.

Oh, and in my free time (HA!) I've posted some of the Montana pictures. You can start here and open the larger images to peruse.

Edited to Add:
We'll be taking the computers apart tonight. I'm guessing the earliest they'll be put back together and running would be Saturday. More likely, Sunday would be a better guess. If you need to reach me, you know how.

Much Stress. Much Packing.

We pack up the truck Friday.

So. Not. Ready.

Last time we moved, some definitive statments were made.

-Him: I will not move us again.
-Me: I will not move with a newborn again.
AND
-Me: I will not move when Steven can't get time off to help.

Obviously we haven't stuck with that.

GAH! Can I panic now?

testing

This is merely a test. If this had been an actual entry, there would have been content, much laughing and a quip or two.

So much to do....

...and so little time.

I have a gazillion pictures to sort through and upload of our trip. I kept up with a few paper entries while we were gone as well that need to be typed up and posted. All but one were quite normal. That last one, it's a doozy. Mostly in regards to the first of it's kind, "gen-you-whine" anxiety attack/panic attack which left us in a rental car driving through the storms we had just flown through.

Fun stuff, I tell ya.

Thing is, I also move in four days. Much packing left to do. I'll post what I can when I take a break here and there. Otherwise, I'll be fairly scarce for a few days.

Not that anyone would notice much given my recent stint of non-posts.

Hey from way out West

We're at a smoothie shop in Bozeman (about an hour from the ranch) and I thought I would tell everyone we're still alive.

Out where the ranch is we get zero cell phone signal and they have a dial up internet connection but Steven isn't comfortable using it when the laptop isn't ours.

We're having fun. I've been keeping up with our adventure on the laptop. I'll upload those entries when I can.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Where is my focus? Where do I spend my free time? What is my goal in my life? In my children's lives?

Time keeps on slippin....slippin...slippin....into the futuuuuure

Three days to pack up the girls and clean up and pack our bags!

Goodness gracious.

I've got some pictures of the new house in the photoblog. Start here.

Paint Fumes Have Rotted My Brain

Lynn came over last night to help me work on painting Katy's room. If you aren't familiar with military housing and the requirements for leaving, the biggest pain in my arse would be repainting. You are allowed (by the Housing Office) to paint any room you choose with the understanding that when you prepare to leave the house you return the walls to their original color. White, very very white. Not a big deal until you realize it takes more than one coat of paint to cover the colors you chose. The KEY store on base gives you one can each of latex and just flat wall paint. After that, you have to go a particular store in Gulfport and purchase more. Our one can almost finished Katy's room.

Lizzy has learned to say Go Away in the most menacing voice. It's quite hysterical and a tad bit scary at the same time.

Off to get busy around here. Wanted to leave you with a photo taken of Eli when we visited with Nancy and Daniel a few weeks ago. Also a picture of the girls looking like the Blues Brothers in front of Nancy's house.

Photos of the Day:

Slow but sure wins the race

I'm trying not to stress. I printed out the FlyLady moving plans. I got three boxes packed yesterday and a good bit of dejunking done.

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed and panic easily when faced with, what might seem to me, an insurmountable task. I then lash out at people when they "interrupt" me on my quest. I'm trying to make myself more aware of when that mindset creeps in and shoo-ing it away. Things will get done. One way or another.

Steven got part of the fence taken down and packed up part of the school room last night while I took Katy and Emily to gymnastics.

Speaking of school, Robin, Steven and I took your advice and things are going well. The move sort of forced us to step back and take it easy and enjoy ourselves together. We'll still read a bunch and he'll work on math with Katy but otherwise, the rest will still be there when we move.

Photo of the Day:

It Rocks My Socks

Another reason for the self-imposed hiatus:

We found a house to rent and we have our final inspection to move out of here on September 3rd. So, if you count the week we'll be in Montana, we essentially have a little over 2 1/2 weeks to pack up and get moved. Plus, paint the rooms back to white here.

If we get out to the house again before we move, I'll take some pictures to post. It's a very nice house with plenty of room. It's out in Woolmarket, a bit off the beaten path. Very close to the river though in a very nice neighborhood.

See you guys soon.

Hiatus

I'll be stepping away from the computer for a while. I need to get my life back in gear. Blogging will be sporadic and short. I'll check my email daily and I'll be online for a bit in the mornings but mostly I want to reconnect with my life. I want to get back to enjoying my kids and my husband. I want to get back to having a clean, presentable house.

I will be back. I promise.