We've truly been here - in the house, with our stuff - for a month now. No, the house isn't completely unpacked, but it is now unpacked and settled to a point that it feels like home. We've also celebrated our first family holiday here - our 11th wedding anniversary. I think that we're really feeling like we're home, finally! I'm not nearly as overwhelmed as I was even last week. There's still a lot to do, but there's so much that has been accomplished. Hans has worked so hard to make things "ours," too, which is always a big deal. And we have a working freezer! Yay!
Here's to getting the last of the settling completed in the next two weeks!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
I just want to live happily ever after every now and then....
This week has been a challenging one. Last weekend, we were housebound by Tropical Storm Lee. We didn't sustain any damage, and the yard got a much needed thorough soaking, so that was good. We also got a lot done inside the house, so that was another plus! But by the time Tuesday rolled around, everyone was ready to get out. Thankfully, Tuesday also brought cooler temperatures and lower humidity, which lifted morale. Tuesday also brought, though, the loss of a new friend to cancer, which pretty much cancelled out any happy in the day.
Beyond that, there were battles with the school (resolved!), battles with the doctor's office (partially resolved) and battles with the appliance retailer who is supposed to be fixing our freezer (possibly solved, but remains to be seen). Then, of course, there was all the normal mundane weekly stuff - trying to stay on top of housekeeping while also unpacking, homework, errands. Throw in two days of migraine, one of which had me in bed much of the day, and well, it was just challenging.
The week ended on a positive note, though - yesterday, things were accomplished, and we have a family room, kitchen, pantry and hall closet, all between 90 and 100% set up. It would have been done sooner, but I keep finding boxes for for rooms in odd places - a box of our bed linens, unmarked, in the dining room. A box for the kitchen in the guest room. A couple of garage boxes in the family room... It tends to slow the unpacking just a bit, because you think you have a room done - it's cleared of boxes! - only to find more for that room elsewhere, so you have to rearrange things in that room yet again.
Still, last night was much more comfortable. Hans worked late, but since the girls hadn't seen him since Wednesday morning, we waited dinner on him (it was Friday, after all!), and all ate together in the family room while watching Eureka. After dinner, we stood around the kitchen, munching pineapple as Hans cut it. It was happy. It was relaxing. It was so very necessary to all of our sanity.
When you move, you tend to get so caught up in all the things that have to be done, that sometimes you forget to stop and just be. That's happened a lot more than usual to me this move. Of course, this move has been so different for me than any of our previous relocations - this is the first time I have had to put a kid in the hospital, the first time I've had to immediately register kids for school, and the first time that Hans didn't move before us, getting some of the less fun bits out of the way beforehand. It was a bit like being used to easing into a warm pool from the shallow end, and suddenly being told that, this time, the water's 50 degrees, and you have to jump straight into the 8 ft section - it's getting done, but there was a period of shock where I just flailed around while trying to adjust.
Still, I think we're getting to a place of normalcy. We have a semblance of a routine. The kids are settling into school. They're beginning to make friends, and while I may not be making friends as such just yet, I am at least talking to people in the neighborhood and at school. Hans is back to being the Hans I know - working, slightly harried, but happier, more even keeled. Marriage is feeling more like a partnership and less like a job again. Things are much better, even if not perfect.
That's what we all strive for, isn't it? No one expects life to truly be fairy tale. We know that Prince Charming ends up with a soft midsection and gnarly toenails, and that Cinderella sometimes has a giant pimple, frizzed hair and pounds that just won't come off. But still, the happy is there. The love is there. You can look at each other and say, "yeah, we're older now, we're different now, but look at what we've come through together, and look at what we get to look forward to!" Like a friend, who just celebrated her second wedding anniversary, posted on her Facebook page, marriage is a series of valleys and peaks, and while the peaks are awesome and the valleys are tough, it's the valleys that make the peaks peaks (I'm paraphrasing a bit here - I hope, if she reads this, she'll forgive me!).
Next week we'll celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. We're in our fifth home since getting married, sixth since meeting 13 years ago. And, while we're so different than we were back then, one thing's the same - I still feel the "happily ever after," even if it's only moments here and there. It's the moments of happily ever after, and the days and weeks of happily right now that make it all work. It's the knowing that, while not every moment is full of romance and passion, there is still romance and passion there.
So like Uncle Jimmy sings:
Take it from me cuz I found
If you leave it then somebody else is bound
To find that treasure, that moment of pleasure
When yours, it could have been
Some people never find it
Some... only pretend, but me:
I just want to live happily ever after every now and then
Beyond that, there were battles with the school (resolved!), battles with the doctor's office (partially resolved) and battles with the appliance retailer who is supposed to be fixing our freezer (possibly solved, but remains to be seen). Then, of course, there was all the normal mundane weekly stuff - trying to stay on top of housekeeping while also unpacking, homework, errands. Throw in two days of migraine, one of which had me in bed much of the day, and well, it was just challenging.
The week ended on a positive note, though - yesterday, things were accomplished, and we have a family room, kitchen, pantry and hall closet, all between 90 and 100% set up. It would have been done sooner, but I keep finding boxes for for rooms in odd places - a box of our bed linens, unmarked, in the dining room. A box for the kitchen in the guest room. A couple of garage boxes in the family room... It tends to slow the unpacking just a bit, because you think you have a room done - it's cleared of boxes! - only to find more for that room elsewhere, so you have to rearrange things in that room yet again.
Still, last night was much more comfortable. Hans worked late, but since the girls hadn't seen him since Wednesday morning, we waited dinner on him (it was Friday, after all!), and all ate together in the family room while watching Eureka. After dinner, we stood around the kitchen, munching pineapple as Hans cut it. It was happy. It was relaxing. It was so very necessary to all of our sanity.
When you move, you tend to get so caught up in all the things that have to be done, that sometimes you forget to stop and just be. That's happened a lot more than usual to me this move. Of course, this move has been so different for me than any of our previous relocations - this is the first time I have had to put a kid in the hospital, the first time I've had to immediately register kids for school, and the first time that Hans didn't move before us, getting some of the less fun bits out of the way beforehand. It was a bit like being used to easing into a warm pool from the shallow end, and suddenly being told that, this time, the water's 50 degrees, and you have to jump straight into the 8 ft section - it's getting done, but there was a period of shock where I just flailed around while trying to adjust.
Still, I think we're getting to a place of normalcy. We have a semblance of a routine. The kids are settling into school. They're beginning to make friends, and while I may not be making friends as such just yet, I am at least talking to people in the neighborhood and at school. Hans is back to being the Hans I know - working, slightly harried, but happier, more even keeled. Marriage is feeling more like a partnership and less like a job again. Things are much better, even if not perfect.
That's what we all strive for, isn't it? No one expects life to truly be fairy tale. We know that Prince Charming ends up with a soft midsection and gnarly toenails, and that Cinderella sometimes has a giant pimple, frizzed hair and pounds that just won't come off. But still, the happy is there. The love is there. You can look at each other and say, "yeah, we're older now, we're different now, but look at what we've come through together, and look at what we get to look forward to!" Like a friend, who just celebrated her second wedding anniversary, posted on her Facebook page, marriage is a series of valleys and peaks, and while the peaks are awesome and the valleys are tough, it's the valleys that make the peaks peaks (I'm paraphrasing a bit here - I hope, if she reads this, she'll forgive me!).
Next week we'll celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. We're in our fifth home since getting married, sixth since meeting 13 years ago. And, while we're so different than we were back then, one thing's the same - I still feel the "happily ever after," even if it's only moments here and there. It's the moments of happily ever after, and the days and weeks of happily right now that make it all work. It's the knowing that, while not every moment is full of romance and passion, there is still romance and passion there.
So like Uncle Jimmy sings:
Take it from me cuz I found
If you leave it then somebody else is bound
To find that treasure, that moment of pleasure
When yours, it could have been
Some people never find it
Some... only pretend, but me:
I just want to live happily ever after every now and then
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