Things I Love: Kitchen Update Edition

I recently got a new dishwasher!  Sadly, I do not have a photo of the new dishwasher.  It pretty much looks like every dishwasher you have ever seen, except in black.  (Unless the dishwasher you were picturing in your mind was already, in fact, black in color.  In which case it looks exactly like that.)

We do not have a ton of cabinet space in our kitchen.  We used to have four cabinets, and now that we have a new dishwasher, we are down to only three.  This can make storing basic kitchen items (pots, pans, dishes, food - in case you weren't certain what "basic kitchen items" referred to) challenging.  Fortunately, my smart, handsome, and talented husband was up to the challenge.  He designed and built this handy-dandy spice rack on the back of our basement door (which is conveniently located next to our stove):

He was assisted in his task by an extremely adorable little helper:

I cannot get over their respective cuteness.

I Should Be Washing Dishes

I'm sitting on my living room couch right now in the middle of a house that is basically a giant mess. It has been a mess for a long time. It will probably remain a mess for quite a while yet.

As I mentioned before, we got a little carried away on the planned improvements before we moved into our new home - which resulted in a house that wasn't quite ready for us when the official moving date arrived (and passed, and then arrived again - at which point the moving date really meant it). The major work is all finished - it's just little things, most of which involve paint, and most of which are keeping us from fully unpacking. Well, there are other things keeping us from unpacking too, like a packed calendar, and habitual laziness, and a particularly cute and sassy three-foot urchin with fairly demanding expectations for attention/entertainment/meals/nose-wiping/etc., but those are posts for another time.

The point is, we're not exactly ready for an open-house. Which we keep telling people we're having. (Perhaps just in time for Christmas!)

We're also a bit behind on other things. As in, I still need to send my grandparents a thank-you card for last Christmas. As in, Eden's California Memories photobook - you know, from when we lived in California almost 9 months ago. As in, laundry. As in, a hundred zillion e-mails, facebook messages, phone calls (I hereby guarantee that this last one will never happen people), cards, smoke signals, and other assorted means of communication all of which I am. horrible. at keeping up with.

My doctor told me to make a follow-up appointment for three weeks after Judah's delivery date. It will be three weeks tomorrow. I made the appointment... yesterday. (I also made it begrudgingly, but that is perhaps another post for another time.) The nurse was merciful and found a spot to squeeze us in on Monday afternoon. (In case you haven't picked up on it, I kind of don't really want to go.)

On Wednesday I sat down and tried to make a list of everything I needed to do. Using one line for every item I easily filled a page and a half. Some things aren't too scary: facebook so-and-so, add an event to my google calendar. Most things, unfortunately, are: unpack house, organize house, decorate house. Get a gym membership and stop trying to smother your sadness with junk food.

My sister-in-law was appropriately worried about the creation of this list - concerned that seeing it all in black-and-white would be too overwhelming and do more harm than good. She has a point. But I was just so sick of the constant mental post-it-notes to do this or that, each and every one of which would be forgotten and remembered and forgotten again in an unending upward spiral of stress and frustration and guilt and remorse, that I had to try something. And, I do think it was helpful - I'm still stressed but at least that extra little stress of "don't forget..." has been removed.

However, looking at the list absolutely emphasizes how impossible it all actually is. I'm trying to accomplish a month's worth of full-time work in 30 minutes a day, and hoping to be done in a week or so. It's not going to happen. And, honestly? My biggest fear is probably just how many people are going to be mad at me (or hurt, or offended, or disappointed) before it's all through.

Am I being melodramatic if I say that I just really don't want another thing to feel sad about?

This house, in its unpacked state, makes me feel sad. The fact that so many people who were and are so kind to us, and who deserve at least some kind of acknowledgment of their kindness, have so far gone without, makes me feel sad. My inability to be the person I was 10 years ago, the person who got things done, makes me feel sad.

Possible or not, healthy or not, it makes me feel good to think about knocking everything off this list. And, I think? There are worse ways of trying to cope.

And that's me. Praying for God's mercy as I fumble my way through the impossible.

(Write blog post. Check.)

There's No Place Like Your Own Place

We are officially in our new home!

And it is lovely. Very definitely still a work in progress, but lovely just the same. Despite this, Eden keeps informing me how much she loves the "gray house" (our old apartment) and even asked a few days ago if we could move her stuff back there. Every time we drive by the old place (which kind of makes it sound like a farm three generations of our ancestors were raised in instead of a rather smelly apartment that we lived in for 7 months without ever fully unpacking) we must all wave and say hello to the gray house.

I'm wondering when this will end. I predict about the time that Eden realizes our new house comes with a yard.

It snowed on the morning of our move. I had heard something about "flurries," but we woke up to a good 2-3 inches, with another inch or so coming down during the few hours it took us to move our stuff from the apartment to the house in the back of several pickup trucks. Despite this bit of unexpected drama, the process went very smoothly, thanks to the help of many friends. And it only took about a day for our mattress (the item that seemed to suffer the most from a little snow exposure) to dry out.

The home renovations weren't 100% complete at the time of the move, so we've been unpacking in stages as projects are finished. I'm hoping that things will mostly be in place by the end of February. And even though there is still a bit of chaos, I can definitely state that it is so much nicer to be all in one house again. Now, even if Peter is working on the house until 10 pm, he is just downstairs (or upstairs or wherever) instead of across town. It's really quite amazing the difference that makes. And even though there are still boxes in every room it seems that something new gets "put away" every day. In fact, this whole moving in process feels a lot like the very slow change from Winter to Spring that we are simultaneously experiencing. Even though some days seem just as overcast and chilly as the day before, I know that each one brings us inevitably closer to sunshine and warmth. And then there are the dramatically different days where it is obvious that Spring will be here before we know it. It makes me happy and gives me a little more strength to be patient. The worst is behind us!

So, life in our house at the moment: 1) looking forward to being settled in our new home, 2) looking forward to Spring, and 3) so very thankful for both!

P.S. I feel like I owe you all pictures. A lot of pictures. Not just of the house in all its stages (which would be enough), but also of the last few months of our lives. I would like to promise that this will happen, but frankly, it takes 800 bajillion hours to load a bunch of photos into blogger. Also, some patience. It is hard to come up with 800 bajillion hours. It is much harder to come up with the patience. But, for you, I will try. Try. It will probably be best if you keep your expectations low.

60(ish) days in 60 seconds

Okay, it's been a lot more than 60 days! Whatever! (Can I still say that? Do people still say that? What if I don't make the W symbol with my hands while saying it, would that mean it's still cool?)

Welcome to the I-just-can't-skip-over-a-couple-months-without-feeling-guilty post. Which might also be another glimpse into my OCD(ish!) leanings.

In short, here's what you've missed in the life of this crazy family over the last few months:

October:

• Our good friend Shanelle visited!
• For Halloween Eden dressed up as Curious George and Pete dressed up as The Man in the Yellow Hat. I was Professor Wiseman. We went to a Trunk-or-Treat at our church. It was kind of a disaster. (That is, our little family was a disaster - not the church event.)

November:

• Pete and I had a quick get-away to Pere Marquette State Park. I think. I can't find any evidence of this on the calendars, but I seem to remember it happening...
• Peter flew to California for about 5 days to speak at an ACSI conference. Eden and I were lonely but survived.
• We spent another couple of days at Pere Marquette with the rest of the church staff and their families for a staff retreat.
  
• Peter was the speaker for the Fall Renewal Weekend at our church, speaking 5 times over three days. He did a great job.
  
• We spent Thanksgiving Day with Peter's family in Kansas City and then the following Saturday with my family in St. Louis.

December:

• We made an ultimately-successful offer on a house! At some point in the previous few weeks we had actually made unsuccessful offers on two other houses, so this really felt like a reason to celebrate (and also a bit surreal).
• A seemingly endless procession of house-related inspections, tests, decisions, and paperwork kicked into gear.
  
• Eden got her first round of stomach-flu.
• I spent 24 hours feeling pretty miserable myself (aches, fever, exhaustion) but counted myself lucky to have escaped the vomiting. Sadly...
  
• I got the stomach flu on Christmas Eve. I did not escape the vomiting. I did, however, miss the Christmas Eve service at church, as well as Eden unwrapping and enjoying many of her presents. Boo. To. That.
  
• We spent Christmas Day at my brother's house in St. Louis with most of my immediate family as well as my maternal grandparents. (I was in quarantine on the love seat.) I did get to see Eden unwrap an avalanche of presents from all her generous relatives. I think she may now own some version of every toy ever made.
• We spent several more days at my other brother's house in St. Louis, generally hanging out and recovering from a busy month. It is so nice to live around family again.
• We did a kid swap with my brother and his wife - watching their son for 24 hours so they could see a movie and enjoy some time to themselves and then leaving Eden with them for the next 24 hours so that we could do the same. We saw True Grit, ate sushi, and slept in. I cannot begin to express how wonderful this was.
  
• We went to see Peter's family in Kansas City for New Year's Eve/Day. I left the party early to tuck Eden into bed but stayed up so I could see the ball drop on television. Unfortunately, I got distracted by a movie on another channel (true confessions: it was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants**) and didn't remember to click back over until 3 minutes after the ball had completed its descent. Perhaps as payback for this stupidity my body refused to go to sleep until 4 o'clock in the morning.

January:

• We were delighted with a brief visit from some of our favorite people in the world, the Shive family.
• I got the stomach flu again.
• We closed on our house! Oh happy day!
• The real work began as we decided to do a few, small renovations before moving in at the end of the month.
• Our renovation project list went from 1) refinishing the bedroom floors to, 2)refinishing the bedroom floors, upstairs landing, and stairs, to, 3) refinishing all the floors in the house except for the kitchen and bathroom to, 4) refinishing all the floors except for the kitchen and bathroom and knocking out (and then partially rebuilding) a wall. Oh and we're also going to repaint half the house. And sell our stove so that we can have a gas range instead of an electric one.
• It snowed a gazillion inches and now isn't supposed to get above freezing for another week. This may or may not be causing the slow erosion of my soul. But Eden made her first (and second) snowman!
  

Renovations are only halfway completed and only three boxes have been packed, but in theory we're moving next weekend!

And now you're all caught up.

**The tagline for this movie is: "Laugh. Cry. Share the pants." Yes, I am serious. I am so ashamed.