And Then There Was Joy.

We officially moved in to our rental house on Saturday. It will take many weeks I am sure to unpack the piles of boxes that line the walls, but it is live-able at least. Each time now we head back home after errands or other short trips Will asks: “new house?” Everyone seems to be adjusting well to our new living arrangements. As far as I can tell here are everyone’s thoughts on the matter:

John
John has mentioned the quiet atmosphere of our new neighborhood. Though we are on the same street we were before, we are on the quieter end of town. Occasionally we get a noisy vehicle go by, or hear the train behind us, or can listen to excited kids as they arrive home from school. But overall, it is a quieter house than we are used to. He and I both have also mentioned that we enjoy the more compact living arrangement. Instead of being so spread out and compartmentalized, this house has one large living area and then bedrooms. It is still pretty big, but the layout makes it feel much more manageable. John has also shown great excitement over his garage. He’s already added some move-able shelving and started making plans for his work table.
Miriam
I am loving my new office. Since John has moved to a downtown office for his work, I have the 4th bedroom for my work space. I have plenty of room for my sewing and computer work, all next to a great big window. The light is excellent, and the space is secluded enough to be quiet, yet close enough to kids that I can work while still keeping an ear out for trouble. I am also loving my upgraded refrigerator and my dining room that sits right next to the kitchen instead of around the corner.
Elise
Elise couldn’t be happier about her pink room. She instantly claimed it for herself and it was the only bedroom we didn’t need to repaint. She is thrilled to be able to disappear into her room to have some alone time, and she is convinced that she will sleep so much better now that she doesn’t have to share. She did actually fall asleep during naptime today, so maybe there is something to that theory.
Will
Will is adjusting better than I expected, at least for now. He seems excited about his “woom,” which is painted “bue.” Both the big kids were thrilled to find out that the owners left the playhouse and trampoline in the back yard and they have been making good use of them. Will likes the garage too, as it has enough room to ride his tricycle around in.
Seth
As I expected, Seth hasn’t shown much preference to where he is. He is sleeping in the bue woom with Will. John’s making them a mini-bunk bed, but for now, Seth is in a play pen. He was extra grumpy today, but I think that had more to do with the busy weekend than with the new house.
Pooka
Our cat is the perhaps who I worried about most with the move. I wasn’t sure she would survive, but even she seems to be adjusting quickly to her new living arrangements. We moved her litter box and food into the garage and she seems fine with that arrangement. She splits her time between the garage and the house quite happily and has actually even seemed more carefree, playful, and affectionate since the move. We are keeping her from the outside for now, until I can be sure she won’t take off for home, but I think she is going to be fine.

I’m sure we will all have times we will miss something about the “old house,” but I am not feeling as melancholy as I expected. I do still have to go over there to clean up our mess before we officially turn it over to the new owners, but it doesn’t really feel like home anymore with all the furniture and people here.

Thanks to everyone who helped us move. It was greatly appreciated!

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I am trying to come to terms with moving from this house we have lived at now for almost 9 years. Despite the fact that we’ve been trying to sell it for several of those years, it still doesn’t seem real that I will be leaving here. You see, after years of trying to sell our house, we finally have an offer. We don’t know yet if everything will go through as planned, but we are moving forward as if it will. Because we are a little particular about what type of rental we want, we went ahead and started the process to sign up for one, even though we don’t really need to move out until May. As it stands right now, we will be moving out April 17th.

We are moving down the street, well quite a way down the street, to the other end of town. We have looked at many rentals and after each one we would ask Elise if she liked it and she would say “yes.” We’d ask her which was her favorite and for quite some time it was whichever one we had looked at most recently. Her reasons for liking a house were sometimes as simple as “there are stars on the bedroom ceiling,” or “I like the closet that you can run through.” At least we know she isn’t picky. Will on the other hand, would always answer “no” when asked whether or not he liked a house. Though he has been quite excited about looking at them. Now whenever I show him a picture of a house, he says “House, in?” His own version of Elise’s question: “Do we get to go in this one?” (Sometimes we just drive by first to check it out.) I wonder how hard his transition will be to actually moving out of our house and “in”to another one. Seth is too young to really be too strongly affected I think, and Elise is excited about something new. But Will, he is just at that age where I wonder if he will be homesick, if he will wonder when we will be going back “home.”

There are a lot of benefits of moving. We have started to sort through and reduce the number of toys, clothes, kitchen items, books, etc. We are taking the opportunity to sell some of our furniture and invest in some pieces that will fit us better. We get to experience the adventure of change.

But there are some things I don’t like about moving. I really like this house. It has served us well, and even though I have failed at my attempts to keep it clean because it is so big, most of the spaces are well-used. I will always remember this house as the house where we began our parenting adventure. From Elise to Seth, each child has been welcomed into this home. Emma, especially, who breathed her first breath in this house, and 7 months later breathed her last just one room away from where she was born. Saying good-bye to this house doesn’t mean I’ll lose those memories, but in some way, it feels like I am having to let something go.

I know I tend to hold too tightly to earthly things sometimes. As we have started to pack and sort to get ready to move out, I pulled out all the bins of baby clothes I had kept. Sorting through box after box of clothes I forced myself to let go of most of the items. Why should I pack them away in a box, when someone else could be wearing them? I did keep many of the ones I had made, and the ones that were Emma’s that she never wore, and others that were extra-special. These will be passed down to my grandchildren someday. But letting go of the rest of the clothes is hard, as letting go doesn’t come naturally to me. I know it is just the start, though, a start down the path of letting go. Perhaps when my hands cling less tightly to the things that surround me, they will cling more tightly to my God.

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I’m sitting here thinking how content I am and what a good day it was. Remembering how I wrote “A Day in the Life” on what turned out to be a not so good day, I wonder what it would look like on a day like today. So here is how my day went today. [...]

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We’ve been very busy around here lately. Thanks to help from my Grandpa and a friend, we were able to make a lot of progress on our house in the last few weeks. I’ve been busy painting, caulking, and varnishing in preparation for an open house on Sunday. It will be from 1-5 pm. If you know of anyone who is looking for a large almost new house, please send them our direction on Sunday. Last time we did an open house we only had two people stop by, so please pray we will have a good turnout. If you are curious as to what the inside of our house looks like, feel free to stop by as it will be clean and ready to show off. :)

Because I’ve been asked a lot, I realize that not everyone knows what our plans are. We are not planning on moving out of the area. Our reasons for selling the house are as follows: One, this is not a change of plan for us, we were always planning on selling our house once it was finished, as our larger plan is to move a little ways out of town. I don’t think we’ll be able to afford it yet, but this is one step in the process. Two, we really would like to lower our monthly bills and this seems the best method. Three, the lure of profit in the bank is hard to pass up after all our hard work.
In other news, John’s building sell has not been completely finalized yet. Closing should be soon. They are waiting on a survey.

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