what's up weekly. (two weeks of news, none of it strictly current.)

Okay, folks.  I'm still trying to play catchup from the weeks when I didn't have time or internet service to post, but I still had a lot of stuff to report.  So today, I'm going to cover the two weeks between September 2 and September 16.

If you remember, we had moved into our new house on August 31, and Laurelai's birthday had been on the 29th.  So my parents came down and we christened the house with a birthday party the first Saturday we were here. 

Laurelai LOVES good cheese, so Juni got her cheese for her birthday.

The following night, we had our first family movie night (A Knight's Tale! Obviously.) and our new house further developed the distinct Van Voorst atmosphere.

The following Monday, my sister and her family came to visit, and they helped us unpack and fix a few things that broke on the moving truck.  They also helped us a hang our new TV, which looks less rinkydink on our basement wall than the old one did.

Flying a drone with Uncle Austin.

See?  Much better.

We started to unpack the Book Room (soon to be called the Conservatory, once I get things put away in there so I can bring in a piano and set up a sewing table).  The kids are loving having access to their books again.

In addition to spending time reading, they've been spending SO MUCH TIME outside.  Our outdoor space is fantastic - they can play on the deck while I'm making breakfast, or they can stay on the grass inside the fence if just the little kids are out.  If the big kids are out, they can head to the big field behind our yard and climb trees, play football, or just run.  (They have been sleeping like rocks since we got here.)  We have also made quick friends with the neighbors across the street, so they often go over their to ride bikes/scooters/power wheels/hover boards/what have you, and they've also gotten to play on the swing set.  The neighborhood is full of kids, and our across-the-way neighbor even keeps his freezer stocked with popsicles that he offers the kids, so it's basically Kid Heaven.

Our dress up clothes have become permanent indoor-outdoor attire.

Now we have TWO Scooter Boos in the house.

Biker Gang.

The neighbor bought the kids squirt guns.  We live in the most friendly neighborhood on the planet.

At night, all the lanterns along our street (every house has one) all light up at the same time, and the street is illuminated in such a cozy way.  Our street forms a closed loop with the next street over, and there is no through-traffic, so it is so neighborly and quiet.  There is a block party going on tomorrow night, and everyone knows everyone else.  We feel so at home already.

All the time outdoors has also meant lots of specialty creatures making their way inside, and lots of time on the Google (or the Off-Brand Google, for privacy and principle reasons) trying to identify our finds.

We've also celebrated a few milestones already since we've been here.  Finneas celebrated a half birthday.

Ophelia turned nine months.  This is always such a weird monthly milestone - it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that she was in my belly as long as she has now been on the outside.  So weird.  She celebrated by sprouting another bottom tooth.  (That takes the count to three on the bottom, two on the top.)  She still swims her way everywhere, though she does spend a lot of time getting her knees under her and rocking like she's going to attempt crawling at some point.  I halfway hope she doesn't; she is so cute mermaiding her way through the house.  She eats every tiny bit of anything she finds on the floor, which is a lot of tiny bits in a household like ours.  Her head is so fuzzy and warm, and her little self is so squishy, I just can't even stand it.  She is our Scooter Boo, our Pheedee Belle, and we love her to bits.  We all fight over who gets to hold her.  I am so glad that as her mom, I hold the trump card, or I'd never get a turn.

I can't find my curtain rod brackets, so a quilt is nailed to the wall.  Classy stuff, Paige Van Voorst.

We started celebrating our Sabbath a little differently since our move.  We start on Saturday nights with a big, pretty meal.  I have to say, I don't hate it. 

The kids have really pitched in and helped in so many ways.  Here you see my middle set making taco fixings for me, and Atticus building a bookshelf.  Can I just say I love having bigger kids?

They prepped all this food on Tuesday afternoon, because I need something I can easily get on the table right away when we get home from our milk pick up after work on Tuesday nights.  Get this: our milk comes from Jerseys and is about 25% cream.  Insane.  I really really miss our Amish runs like crazy, but the milk down here is gooood.

That quart jar holds just the cream I skimmed off this one gallon pitcher of milk!  So far I have made ice cream and butter and white sauce and coffee creamer... just to try to keep up with the cream!

Whew, and I have one more bit of news to chronicle.  We had our windows professionally washed by a friend from church and I am officially addicted to having clean windows.  It makes such a huge difference.  He did a great job, even with the peanut gallery breathing down his neck the whole time.  If you're in the area, I fully recommend Kansas City Local Window Cleaning.  That's not paid or incentivized in any way; I'm just super happy with the results!  Thank you, Kevin!

Aaaaaaaand that's all I've got in me to write, and I'm guessing it's all you've got in you to read.  I will keep working my way forward and maybe I'll catch up to the present soon!  In the meantime, I'm going to go live my life the way these photos make me feel:

It's a good, good life you guys.

what's up weekly. (I mean, monthly. I mean, Let's Talk about Moving Week.)

WHEW Y'ALL.  These last couple of weeks have been quite the ride, let me tell you.  And on top of it, we didn't have Wi-Fi hooked up at the new house until this past weekend, so I haven't been able to blog about it.  Even now, I don't have it in me to chronicle every last thing that has happened, so let me just bite off a chunk called "Moving Week."  Today I'll just cover August 26 through September 2.

The Friday night before Moving Kickoff Weekend, Todd got the kids one last round of Andy's Frozen Custard, a Como favorite.

The next day, my mom came down from Iowa to help me pack my kitchen.  To get the kids out from under foot, Todd took them on a walk.  I had already packed all the baby hats and the stroller with the visors, so Todd rigged up a makeshift sunshade out of a moving box for Ophelia.  She seemed to like it okay.

Monday was Laurelai's ninth birthday!!! We had gotten wings over the weekend as her chosen birthday dinner, and we packed up the Uhaul on her actual birthday.  Some may say her day was at risk of getting lost in the shuffle of moving, but I like to think of it more like she got a whole new house for her birthday.

Laurelai is just a pure ball of nuclear energy all packed down and squished to bursting in a tiny, stringy little body.  She radiates frequency.  But at the same time, she does things slowly and meticulously - which is why her handwriting is so good, and she is never at risk of getting distracted and burning something she's cooking. Whatever she's doing, she's All There.  She is extremely servant-hearted and kind.  She loves to help in the kitchen.  She has a very tender heart and conscience.  She is a hoarder because she doesn't want to hurt anything's feelings by throwing it away.  She is so silly and funny and pretty and wonderful, and the sun would not shine as bright without her.

On Monday night, on the way home from picking up the Uhaul, the alternator in the Kraken died.  Luckily we were close to home, and friends were close by that could come jump us to give us just enough 'oomph' to get all the way home, but it definitely added a complication to an already crazy week.  

Once we got home with the Uhaul, friends came and helped us load up, and they prayed over us.  Many of them were friends who also moved down to Columbia at the same time we did to help plant Anthem.  It was sweet and surreal to think through everything the last six years have held, and bittersweet to realize we would actually be leaving.  Columbia has really become our home over time - I was so resistant to loving it, but I have found myself very sad to leave.  I will deeply miss our friendships here, as well as all of the wonderful things I have come to love about this city - mostly my access to cheap incredible food, my Amish friendships, and our little church.  I will even miss our house, if you can believe that after all the bellyaching I did at the beginning!  All three of the little girls were born there, but Ophelia was literally born there. In that very living room.  So much joy and abundance was given to us in Columbia.

Anyway, I'm going to move on before I get too emotional.

Monday night, the kids watched a movie on the laptop before bed, and then had a slumber party in the boys' room one last time.

Tuesday morning some friends were set to arrive from Leavenworth to help us get all of our vehicles over there.  (We needed to move the Kraken, Goldie Honda and the Uhaul, but I still don't drive out of town so Todd was our only driver.  It felt like a, "You have a wolf, a donkey and a bale of hay to get across a river on the barge, but you can only take two at a time," kind of situation.)  Todd spent the morning calling around to different mechanics in town to figure out if any of them could get us in to look at the alternator that day (answer: no, the first place couldn't even look at the Kraken until Thursday).  But when our friends arrived, they knew how to fix what needed to be fixed, so they spent the morning helping us with that and loading a few last things on a trailer, and then we headed out.

While they worked on the van, the kids swung on the tree in the front yard, and the little girls played hide and seek in the garage lockers.  It was a sweet, joyful way to end our time there.

Remember when this front yard had a weird planter in the middle of it, and an oak tree and a random lantern and a bunch of overgrown bushes?  Now it has patchy grass, but it is still better than it was before we put our mark on it.

We built these lockers with a friend.

Goodbye, Shannon Place.  You were a good house to us.

That night, we didn't head all the way into Leavenworth but stayed the night with friends in the Kansas City area.  On Wednesday morning, we left early to make it to town for our final walk through.  We were set to close on our house at 10:00, and when we arrived at 9:30, the previous owner was still occupying it and much of her stuff was still in it.  The movers were there, but were standing around on a smoke break.  We were informed that she was pretty sure she'd be out by 1:00.  Um, what?  We have bought a lot of houses in our day, but nothing like this has ever happened to us before.

We were really frustrated, but there wasn't really anything we could do.  We drove around for a few hours, we got some lunch and went to a park, we drove past the house multiple times on the off-chance she would decide to leave before 1:00 (she didn't).  It was a rough spot in an already deeply exhausting week.  But, we did get good barbecue out of the deal and she did end up leaving eventually (which is more than what SHE could say about the sellers of her own new house - I guess when she arrived, her sellers did the same thing to her!  But she ended up calling the cops on them to get them to leave.  I'm not sure whether I admire her moxie or resent her hypocrisy.  Maybe both).

Where we stayed Tuesday night.  The Kraken looks tired but triumphant.  Try not to be dazzled by his sexy new alternator.

Sitting outside the Title company, eating donuts and killing time.

Stealthily taking photos of the gal's moving truck, still sitting in the driveway, mocking us.

Lunch.  My legs are the same color and approximate size as the truck.  The truck is less lumpy.

While I'm already annoyed as I relive the hours we spent driving aimlessly around town before landing here for lunch, I'm just going to go on another rant: Modern Playgrounds.  WHERE ARE THE TREES?  Why must everything be so blasted hot?  It's like the aesthetic they're going for when planning modern playgrounds is "Surface of the Sun."  Yes, we're sitting in the shade in this photo, but the second you venture out from the table to actually use the playground, the temperature rises like a million degrees, and the heat just radiates off the ground because there's no grass either.  Why did they not consult Paige Van Voorst before progressivizing playground design?  Why can't we just keep the old way of doing things - the old swings that would catch your hair in the chains, and the metal slides that would cook your thighs with the heat of molten lava should you ever dare to brave them, but also the TREES AND GRASS?  I miss the old playgrounds.  Okay, end rant.

We did finally get into the house, in case you were worried we didn't, and Todd went to get our Uhaul to start unloading.  Friends came by to help through the afternoon, and by about 5:30, everything was off the truck.

How we feel about our new house.

The moment of truth.

The next day, Todd, Atticus and Finneas drove BACK to Columbia with the truck to load up our storage units, and I worked on getting our kitchen totally unpacked.

It was a very full and crazy week, but we did it.  We made it through.  And there has been a lot more to share since then, so keep your eyes peeled for the next installment!  

And that, my friends, is how we expertly packed a truck and a week and a blog post full to bursting.