Next Chapter begins

It feels like a million years since I posted on here. In reality it's not been that long time-wise but lots of things have changed so it feels like a lot to catch up on.

We finally moved into our house on Wednesday, June 24th. Over a month after we closed! Our painters worked really hard to get things finished but were not quite done when we got back so instead to trying to have the kids adjust to the new house with doors off hinges and light plates off, not to mentions wet paint, we decided to give them the extra time they needed. We did move a bunch of our big furniture into the garage and out of the POD storage, and we had our small group and some other friends and family help us empty the storage unit we had the weekend before we moved which was such a help.

We have been in for almost 2 weeks, there are still boxes everywhere, and nothing on the walls. My lovely kitchen is full of things to find places for and counters covered in stuff! Our little ones make unpacking complicated.

Jeremy took them to the zoo for the morning last weekend so I could finally organise their rooms and that felt like a huge deal, although once everything was off the floor, they looked ever so bare! I need to get some pictures and things up on their walls.

The past few evenings, once kids have gone to sleep (which in this crazy hot weather is miserable for all of us) I have tackled the playroom. I understand that this will be a daily event to get it in order but now most things are organised into boxes and have a place, even if its temporary - we are planning to get some other furniture to store things in there but this works for now. Again however, the bare walls are so hard for me to handle. I have an idea of a few things I want to get for the walls but it will take money and time to get it to where I want it.

The rest of the house continues to be a work in progress. It will be for a while. I have to try and find peace with that. That too, is a work in progress :)

If that wasn't enough, we started potty training Levi last week. I put pull-ups or a diaper on if we left the house for a few days, especially for longer car rides, but he was doing so well at home in underwear without accidents, I have even ventured out with him diaper less! He even took himself to poop (for the first time!) while I was putting Nora down for a nap! I am so proud of him and impressed with how well he seems to have taken to it. He will be starting pre school next school year and so now he has the peeing and pooping in the right place, we have to start working on him, pulling up underwear and pants before leaving the bathroom and begin lessons in wiping his bum. 

And then there is the sleeping - kids in their own rooms. Its had good nights and bad ones, but the hot weather has really played into the worst of them. The two coolest nights they have both slept in their rooms until the very early morning when they come into our bed and have fallen back asleep. We haven't put up the dark bedroom curtains yet, so I am hopeful when we get that project done it might help. They are both doing better than I expected.
We need to get into the habit of settling them back in their own space but boy that's tough in the middle of the night. When they will fall right asleep next to us in the bed.

We made it to our church for the past two weeks, which is a huge deal. Before that we hadn't been since Easter and it was so great to be back! Levi has had a blast in his class and Nora did really well (for her anyway) in the nursery. I stayed with her the first week but she barely looked for me, so Jeremy stayed this week but then tried to leave which did not go over well. But she was really tired, having been disturbed through the night from all the crazy fireworks which lit up our house all night long, and there were less kids to be a distraction so. I think we might try one more week of staying with her before we try to leave her again. I am hopeful and prayerful that her separation anxiety will be getting less and less.

We are finally here in our new space, so thankful that God brought us here and excitement that we have about the future. We are finding our rhythm slowly and surely, in between the unpacking. The past eleven months have taken it's tole on us as a couple and as a family and we have some kinks to work out but I am confident we will in time. This is the beginning of the next chapter in our story and we are ready!