what's up weekly. (Ascension and some family milestones.)

Just wishing and hoping and thinking and praying, planning and dreaming this house packs itseh-heh-helf...

Well, it's Friday again folks, and this house isn't packing itself, no matter how much I swish my finger at it like in Mary Poppins.  It's as though the physical laws of nature don't bend to my will or something.  Gah.  Buzzkill.

So, I will go ahead and just keep at it.  I had mentioned last week we were going to FaceTime show the house to some folks, but the sale of their own house fell through that morning so they canceled.  Our realtor still came by to take a look around and make a few suggestions, and the updated plan is that we will list it on June 9.  That gives me a couple more weeks to pack, clean, and get the carpet cleaners/house cleaner/handyman here for some work.  I'm feeling pretty good about things.  I feel focused, but not stressed.  At least not yet.

In the meantime, we have been busy enjoying our summer.  Chicken care and yard work have us enjoying the weather outside when we can (this week has been kind of rainy).  We picked up an Azure order, as well as a grassfed beef order.  I cooked up fifteen pounds of ground beef yesterday, and am hoping to pressure can it today for easy, shelf-stable meals as we get into the busier stage of moving.  The big girls have spent a lot of time baking, and it appears Juni wants in on the action.

Our week has held some celebrations and milestones, too:

Yesterday was Ascension, so we had a cheeseboard feast!

Rocco lost another tooth, and he's looking mighty scrappy.

Juni got her new glasses! (And then broke them the next day.  Even with so many kids in glasses over the years, that is a record in our house.)

And Atticus learned to shave, which is not only a milestone for him, but for all of us - we are entering into a new stage of parenting in which we have a child old enough to shave.  (AND LOOK HOW TALL HE IS GETTING.  Shut up, I don't even want to talk about it.)

In other news, Todd had a meeting with his bosses at work yesterday, and it is official: he can keep his job when we move!  What an answer to prayer!  So that is one necessary detail locked down, and it will be nice that there won't be any sense of transition in that area of life.  When we did our first church plant, Todd got a new job before we sold our house, so he moved before we did so he could start, and we lived apart for a month or two.  When we moved here, we didn't want to do that again, so he waited until we landed to find a new job, and was jobless for two months.  Employment has been a big source of moving unknowns for us in the past, so it is such a blessing to not have to worry about that this time.

And that is about it, my friends.  Such a full week, but also graciously easy to summarize!  I hope you all have a great weekend.

what's up weekly. (last day of school, and ophelia is five months old.)

Okay, you guys.  I have been on the move all week, and I am just dead on my feet, so this might be a bit abbreviated.  But let's jump in and see how far we get.

Our biggest news is that SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!  I took the kids to Andy's for celebratory ice-cream-for-lunch on Friday.

We also got some Last Day of School photos taken!  (Someone give me a medal!)

I spent much of the afternoon on Saturday packing, which always seems to create more of a mess than it solves.  Then on Sunday morning, our realtor texted to ask if we could have an early showing of the house THE NEXT DAY.  Um.  Sure.

Luckily, it didn't work out for them to see it on Monday, so they're going to be looking at it today instead.  It bought me a few extra days for packing, cleaning and running errands before having people in here but also... it's still not even technically on the market for another week, and it shows.  I'm hoping they like it and make an offer today, and save us the trouble of actually listing and showing it, but we'll just have to see.

In addition to packing, we've had a cleaning lady come give us a bid, and the glass guy is coming today to replace the glass in the back door (where a precious child assumed he was locked out and banged on the glass with his fist, trying to get someone to let him in... only to discover the door wasn't even locked).  Atticus has had speech therapy, Juni went in to the eye doctor's office to get her glasses picked and ordered, we all had chiropractor appointments and I've made runs to consignment and Goodwill.  And in between all of that, I've been packing packing packing.  I'm making headway but still have a long way to go before it's ready to list.  And I'm still breastfeeding obviously, which affects how much energy and time I have to give to everything else.  Good gravy, I'm tired.

So I'm going to punt the hard work of blogging over to photos of the kids playing with the chickens, so I can take a little typing breather.

I've taken to calling Penelope, "Mother Hen."  She has taken over responsibility for the chickens and is so good with them.

They moved out of their kiddie pool "brooder" and onto the grass under the coop.  They seem pretty happy about it.

DeeVee looks like he got picked to be dodgeball captain.  Cock of the walk, if you will.  Still looking for a home for him.

Chicken chasing at night, to get everyone squared away in the coop.

Okay, that was a nice little break.  So now I'm going to tell you that OPHELIA TURNED FIVE MONTHS OLD.  This lady has everyone wrapped around her tiny, perfect little finger.  She is smiles and snuggles and all good things.  She is bald.  She is blonde.  She has one tiny tooth.  She sucks on her bed while she falls asleep.  She already finds Callista to be simultaneously the most hilarious and most infuriating sibling, so she has clearly already gotten a feel for the house vibe.  She still sleeps next to our bed in the pack and play, and I wouldn't want it any other way - I love watching her sleep before I fall asleep.  She is happy and content to just lay on the couch and watch the chaos unfold around her - so far, she doesn't seem super motivated to roll around or anything, but I think it's because of self-preservation, and the fact that she is rarely set down long enough to figure it out.  Everyone just adores her.

Okay, I think that covers most of the week.  Here are Juni and Callista to play you into the weekend:

Happy weekend, everyone!

what's up weekly. (mother's day, chickens and THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!)

Let's skip the small talk, SCHOOL'S OUT!!  Today is our last day, so I don't have cute last-day-of-school photos to post yet, but you better believe they're coming.  This is something worth celebrating!

Do Alphabits count toward school hours?

I will say, this school year has been gentle.  All of my school kids are in a pretty independent place, so my involvement was somewhat minimal, and our days operated smoothly.  So it was hard work, for sure, but it wasn't hard fought.  I'm proud of what the kids accomplished this year and the progress we made.  We definitely have things that I'd like to focus more on, but each year of homeschool under my belt helps me realize more and more that there is time for tweaking.  We can always try again to meet our ideals next year.

So.  In honor of their hard work (and acknowledgement of the sudden sweltering heat), we're going to get frozen custard for lunch today from a local place.  (In between going to get Juni's glasses ordered, going to Atticus' speech therapy appointment, and packing packing packing and driving driving driving boxes across town to the storage unit.  Even without school on the agenda, we still have plenty to fill our time.)

Okay, let me really quick tell you about the speech therapy Atticus started recently.  I got the therapist's name from our orthotropic dentist, not in reference to his speech but rather his oral function.  But I finally called her because I was desperate about his speech and the last standard-practice place we tried left me so frustrated that I knew it was time to try a different approach.  She's focusing more on training and strengthening his tongue than on getting him to try to create certain sounds, but by jove if it isn't already helping his speech.  We've only been three times and I can already hear a difference.

And in regards to Juni's glasses: her eye has been turning in lately, just like all my other glasses kids' did, so I knew it was time to get her an appointment.  The doctor found her vision is pretty bad in that eye (shocker, I know), so she's jumping into the exciting world of spectacle sports.  

In between all of our appointments, I've been trying to clear out the house.  I'm not going to lie, it's overwhelming at times.  Also, I cleared out the girls' room today, and removed their bookshelf and the toy kitchen, along with some books, toys, and their cubbies... and it's shocking how much bigger their room feels.  And we're honestly not a 'toy' family, so I didn't expect for there to be this large of a difference. 

In continuation of last week's goal of time stamping our house, this is how the girls' room has looked as we've lived in it, before I cleaned it out yesterday and rearranged.  The three big girls share this room - Callista has a trundle mattress that we pull out at night.

In the afternoons, I've been driving a trunk load or two of boxes up to the storage unit, which is annoying but necessary.  The closest place in town with open units is over twenty minutes away, so every trip takes like an hour.  I take Atticus with me for extra help, though, so it's nice to get some one-on-one time with him.

This is our room.  I really wanted to get the curtains finally hung before the home birth (I don't know why, but every baby has 'its project' that I get weird about before birth) but it didn't end up happening.  Six years in this house and still no curtains!

This is where Todd works from home.  Have I mentioned we're kind of busting at the seams?

In chicken news, the chickens are doing well.  They've been moved out of the garage into the yard, so our garage doesn't stink so bad, thank heavens.  They spend the day in their little makeshift pen (kiddie pool and chicken wire and sheets, because we are definitely the 'white trash backyard' people on our block) and sleep in the coop at night.  Last night one of them got through the chain link fence into our neighbors' yard, and we're very glad their dog wasn't out.  I still haven't decided if I'm going to get a pen for them or just let them free range, but clearly the kiddie pool pen is at least necessary until they can't get through the fence.  There are dogs in three of the four yards that abut ours - a midsize mutt thing, a shih tzu, and a husky.  The husky is actually the lowest threat.  The shih tzu has already killed another neighbors' chicken.  (Considering that it is a shih tzu we're talking about, the chicken probably died of sheer annoyance and not physical injury.)

DeeVee is unable to hide his true identity anymore - he is definitely a rooster.  And also he's so pretty and also he's my favorite.  I feel sad we're not going to keep him, but c'est la vie.

Penelope has really, really enjoyed life with the chickens.  She has kind of taken on the role of Mother Hen, if you will: making sure they have fresh food and water throughout the day, moving them from coop to pen to coop, giving them treats, playing with them, keeping them shaded as the sun moves through the day, climbing the fence to get Little Princess out of the neighbor's yard.  She has been so fantastic - and, as she's an indoorsy gal, it's been nice for her to have something to motivate her to spend good amounts of time outside each day.

And the last news of the week: it was Mother's Day last weekend!  The kids were sweet and got me all the seasons of a show I like (it was Penelope's idea, for those of you wondering), and Todd got me a book and arranged with friends to watch the kids so we could go out for a date night later in the week.  We went to a local Cajun place, and it was good enough to make me think we shouldn't move away.  It was good enough to make me want to serenade my oysters with, "How do I live without you?"  It was good. 

But THESE kids (plus Ophelia) are who I truly can't live without.  Spicy cream sauce pasta is deceptive and oysters are fleeting, but a family who looks this cute is to be praised.  Seriously, not an uggo among 'em.

And that was our week.  I would love to just fall down dead, because I'm tired and sore and I don't want to have to keep packing, but your life doesn't stop just because you're dead, so I guess I'm going to have to man up and keep at it.  I'm hoping to make some good progress on cleaning, repairs and clearing things out so that it's pretty much done by the end of next week.  I have tentative plans to ask for a little help for a couple hours on the morning of Saturday, May 21 - just laying mulch, some basic cleaning, that kind of stuff - so if you're local and free from 10ish to 12ish, please let me know!

Rocco just looks like a wallet-sized print of Finneas.

Happy Friday, and HAPPY SUMMER!