Thursday, July 14, 2016

Transitions

Transitions kinda suck.  I don't have any living room furniture. The only chairs to sit in are at the kitchen table.  My butt misses the recliner. There's no good place to read to the girls.  Blaaaaaah.

I am ready to be moved into my new house, with furniture and space. I am so excited to start a new journey. The waiting in between this house and the new house is hard. Transitions are hard.

It's been a while since I've lived in a season of transitions. In the 8 years we've been married, we've had a lot of them. Transitioning from a couple to parents. Transitioning from being students to being "adults". Transitioning from being renters in Lawrence to homeowners in Overland Park. Tim transitioning from one job to the next. Me transitioning from a full time student with a toddler at home to a full time, stay at home mom of two. 

There were several periods in the past 8 years where I had no idea what my day to day life would look like in 6 months or a year. I didn't know where we would live. Then I didn't know where I would student teach, or whether I would teach in my own classroom. Tim didn't know where he would work. It was a season of upheaval. There was a lot of wondering and uncertainty and worry about what was to come. And while there have been some hard patches, there have been a lot of very good times. Overall, I feel very blessed. 

So, I feel very certain that things will be OK. I do believe it will all work out, like it has in the past. I believe that there are good things in store for me and for my family. The waiting is hard. It's hard to have a lot of my belongings packed up. I went to watch Ghostbusters (my favorite movie, the one I've historically watched for comfort) the other night only to discover that I have no idea where it is. I made do. I'm sure it's somewhere.

I've spent too much time worrying about small, trivial things. What will our new neighbors be like? What if there are kids who are bad influences on ours? What if a table won't actually fit in our kitchen? Where am I going to put two litter boxes? Will we have enough money? Will I buy an Overland Park or a Lenexa pool pass next summer?  What if our buyers back out on closing day? What if we end up homeless? Blah, I can't wait to worry about more important things. 

Despite all these (pretty ridiculous) questions without answers, I do feel peace. This time of transition is hard, but it is fleeting. It won't last forever. Before long, we'll be in a new home figuring out what our new normal looks like. I know there will be bumps along the way. But I think it will all be OK.  

I'll have shelves to put books on, my comfy bed to sleep in, and a recliner of some kind to sit on. I'll make sure of it! A couch for reading books to the children. My kids will be able to ride their bikes. We'll have space to invite people over. Lexi will have a real bed instead of just a mattress on the floor.  I will spent some time helping Lydia purge even more stuff and organize what's left so she doesn't cry every time I ask her to clean her toys up. We'll get our new homeschool room unpacked and ready and we will get into a routine again. We will get there. We can survive this weird time, and we will. We've done it before. We've done way worse before, if I'm being honest. We'll be just fine. 

Only 38 days to go! I'm ready.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

June & July Goals

June Goals Review

June was a most ridiculous month. I did SO VERY MUCH work on our house, you would not believe the amount of stuff I evicted from our home. It felt great. A good chunk of our belongings are packed and frankly, I have been thinking about donating several boxes without even opening them again. I read "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" during part of this process, which was excellent timing.

So, our house is in the inspection period, yay! We listed it, left town, and came home to 5 offers, 4 of them being above asking price. It was an awesome feeling, and it was great to not have to keep it super clean for an extended period of time for showings. It looks like we're going to close at the end of August. (PS, if you're looking for a great realtor, call Carla. She's the best!) The market is wild and crazy, and we've made multiple offers of houses. Hopefully, we will find our place soon. For right now, it's kind of a waiting game. It's nerve-wracking, but I have faith that we will end up in a good place.

I met the majority of my goals this month, which was great. I'm setting up some goals for July but I still don't completely know what it will look like. We will see. Oh, there were no "meh" goals this month, weirdly.

I'm feeling kinda lazy so we're limited to whatever graphics are already available on my blog haha.




Purge every room of the house - I got rid of so much stuff, it would blow your mind. Now I'm on a roll and I want to get rid of even more!
Organize the basement rooms - Not gonna lie, they look beautiful.
Finish organizing my files into the new filing cabinet - Check. I'm more organized than I have been and I hope to stick to it.
Clean every room of the house - Yup. Did you see the pics?
Get the house on the market for the weekend of June 25th - Check! It was a tight squeeze but I finished the last of my cleaning as the photographer arrived to take pictures. We've accepted an offer and are now in the inspection period.
Enjoy a staycation - We had a good time with this. It ended up being a fun way to do something different without breaking the bank. We hit up Old Shawnee Days, went to the pool and enjoyed eating treats.
Try out one new pool (and hit all the OP pools by summer's end) - We went to Youngs, which was fun!  One of the slides nearly killed me. Turns out there's only one pool we haven't been to, Marty Pool, so we'll have to hit that later.
Enjoy a reunion with the Paden side - We had a wonderful time. We need to see those lovely people more!
Host Usborne books party and purchase books to use for Science and Social Studies - Checkity check. Can't wait for the books to arrive. It'll be better than Christmas. 
Write something every week - Check.
Accept the fact that we may not do any school til August - Haha yeah, I've accepted that this summer is going to be pretty chill for the kids. I think they need more structure. Hopefully I'll have time to get to that soon.
Finish a book, maybe - I've read bits and pieces of 3 or 4 different books and I finished The Life Changing Magic yesterday. So a day late. Whatevs, that counts.




Pack up all non-essential items - I did a pretty good job at this. There were a few cabinets and drawers that I did not have time to get to. Honestly, I think I need to just get rid of the majority of the non-essential items anyway.
Coffee with a friend - Running errands with a friend counts, right??






Figure out how we could implement MoneySmart family system in a way that we can stick to - I mean I have some ideas about this but there's no way we are going to get started until we have a clearer picture of what is going to happen with our house and when our move will be. I'm debating whether I want to buy a copy of this for reference.
Determine a rough outline for Science and Social Studies for the upcoming year - Not so much. I mean, I bought the books, so I have an idea of what we are going to learn about...but that's as far as I have gotten.



July Goals

Personal
Read a book
See the new Ghostbusters movie

Family
Make Lydia's birthday special

Social
Coffee and/or dinner with friends
Celebrate my 30th birthday

School
Get back into some kind of routine
Do some art projects
Figure out a curriculum for Legacy for the fall

Writing
Blog weekly

House
Do an additional purge
Find a great house and buy it!!!