Friday bullets, May 12, 2017

The lawyers may be getting closer to an agreement on the final contract, but my stomach still has yet to have cause to unknot. This house buying and selling business is not for wimps, I tell you. There have been other things going on around here... when I stop worrying long enough to notice.

  • A. is done with the semester and is now back at home. It's really nice having her here.
  • More picture selling happened today, though it didn't seem to be quite as lucrative as yesterday's sale.
  • I have found movers and people to haul away all the stuff we are not moving. I have found flooring guys and a contractor who can all get out to the new house at the same time to measure and give estimates. I have arranged to be able to get into the new house so that the contractor and floor guys can do their thing. Now, all I need to do is confirm with the moving company I chose and tell the ones I didn't choose that we're going with someone else. That's a big thing off the to-do list, huh?
  • I finished another Ivan Doig book... English Creek... and really enjoyed it. I'm now on my third Ivan Doig book, and still highly recommend him as an author.
  • I'm realizing that I need to take a little time to plan on how to send 5 children to sleep-away church camp next month. What has caused this realization is because the past two days have been warmer and I'm starting to my children wear what summer clothes they own. I'm remembering that some children's summer wardrobes were looking a bit small and more than a little worn by the end of last summer, and I'm going to have to do something about that if they are to have any clothes to pack. And shoes... ! They insist on growing and nearly everyone needs new sandals. I started to do some replacing today, with Y. getting new sneakers and sandals, as she needed them the most desperately. I think she has grown the most out of anyone this past winter. Well, except for the adolescent boys. It's hard to keep up with that kind of growing.
  • It is interesting watching all my people process the impending move. It is (not unexpectedly) particularly difficult for Y. and R., who just had some major changes to their lives. Y., or course, is quite able to articulate exactly what is bothering her, R., not so much. It comes out in unexpected ways. The other day, R. asked me what we would eat for breakfast in our new house. This was a different question from her standard litany of naming objects and asking if they were coming with us. I admit it threw me for a moment. Then I realized that with her last huge move, her whole world changed, including her diet. (And food is extremely important to this one.) Why wouldn't she expect this next move to feel as totally different? I was able to assure her that we would be eating exactly the same things we do right now.
  • J. may have some leads on some working cars. This would be most welcome, as the state of his current vehicle is declining by the second. We just have to figure out if getting the cheapest car, knowing it will be driven short distances once we move would be best, or spending a bit more (out of a budget we don't really have for it), and hoping that it lasts longer and requires less maintenance. None of the cars in question are what anyone would call new by any stretch of the imagination. I hate spending money on vehicles. I am just not a car person.
  • P. has decided to work on learning Romanian (via DuoLingo) as her free time summer project. She is also continuing to learn Dutch. And TM has now decided to join the fun and learn Spanish... because then he can understand the lyrics to Enrique Iglesias' songs better.
  • Everyday, we are treated to the countdown until June 3 from TM. (It now stands at 23 days.) What is June 3? Why the Enrique Iglesias concert that J. is taking him too. We decided that J. would be the more fun parent to attend a concert with, since my claim to fame is having fallen asleep in a Violent Femmes concert. True story.
  • D. is in Thin Ice Theater's production of Fiddler on the Roof this weekend. Come see it if you are free... it will be very family friendly.

D. as Tevye

  • And because having a show this weekend isn't enough fun by itself, tomorrow morning is Blaine's graduation from college. I'm sure I will have photos to share afterwards.

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