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.

It's Aliiiiivve!

Hello, friends.

So I mentioned once awhile back that I was thinking about closing up shop on this ol' blog. I implied in that same post that I'd already decided not to, that this blog would definitely go on in some shape or form.

And then I just kind of stopped writing. For about two or three months.

Turns out that post was a bit presumptuous. I wasn't ready to decide just yet. I'm not even 100% confident that I'm ready to decide right now. I mean I thought about writing a lot. I took photos with the intent to upload them here. I thought about Eden stories to share. I came up with some great post titles. But the motivation to actually sit down at keyboard and type just... fizzled. Every single time.

I keep thinking of those famous verses from Ecclesiastes. These last few months for me have been a time to absorb and reflect. In fact, I think that so much has been coming in to my life and mind and heart lately, that it has taken all my energy to manage the flow, and nothing has been left over for giving out. There is a time to produce and a time to gather supplies if you will. A time to expend energy through various endeavors and a time to hunker down, and be silent, and just try to really take in this life as we find it. I'd been feeling the need to hunker down and be silent. It was long overdue, in fact.

But though the ground around our home remains frozen and seemingly lifeless, I've been feeling the stirring of some energy again. The desire to grow and stretch and shake off some of this dust and dirt and maybe even find some new sunny spots to explore. (Oh metaphors! How I've missed abusing you!) Perhaps it's the New Year and all the people around me who are busy making and pursuing resolutions. Or maybe I have finally recovered from MegaVirusAttack 2010/11, version welcome-to-a-new-state-and-a-whole-new-community-of-germs-just-waiting-to-make-your-acquaintance. (Oh, and that! The run-on-word thing! I've missed that too.) Or maybe it's something else. Maybe we all just need to turn off the lights and unplug the phone once in awhile. Sit in the dark, play the no-one's-home-game, and just be.

I know I did.