May 4, 2011

We finally got connected to the Internet - just now! I have had withdrawal pains:).

We are in the new house and have been for a week and a day now. We are all adjusting quite well and the unpacking continues. We have most of what we moved from the rental house unpacked but still have lots of stuff (junk) to go through from storage. Until we finish, we cannot park in the garage, so we are very motivated. We are giving lots of stuff away.

The new house is awesome. What a wonderful blessing. This neighborhood is so incredibly peaceful and beautiful. I think my blood pressure went down quite a bit after the move.

Our yard is still dirt/mud, depending on the weather. They started putting in the irrigation system today so, hopefully, sometime next week we will have grass. Until then, the boys are quite happy to play in the dirt.

This house seems quite a bit smaller than our old house, although larger than the rental of course. The husband assures me that it is close to the size of the old house but it sure does not seem so to me. Most of the rooms are smaller than the same room in the old house, although we do have an extra room upstairs so I guess that makes up the difference. I'm not complaining. I am happy to be getting rid of tons of stuff and living life a bit lighter on stuff. I am trying to figure out how to sneak out some toys because we have too many but Ben has a real issue with letting things go.

My favorite room in the new house is actually two rooms, the living room and kitchen. I love being in here and having the screened in back porch is awesome. We can open the doors and enjoy the breeze and the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves and there are lots of windows so we see lots and lots of green. It reminds me so much of when I was a kid at my grandma's and grandpa's old house. The cats love going out on the screened porch also. I moved one of their basket kitty beds out there and Zoe is hanging out there now.

The boys are loving being here too. We are all so happy to be able to stay home and not have to be driving back and forth all the time. It is very clear to me that our overall stress level has gone down tremendously.

The boys love having their own rooms and we have not had any issues with that at all. I had thought Nick might have an issue staying by himself but he really loves it. I made a big deal about letting them each pick out their own bed-side lamp and that they can stay up for a little while and read a book at bedtime. Nick does this every night. Last night he was up too late and I had to talk to him about being responsible about it if he wanted to keep his lamp. He loves to read and I frequently see him reading books throughout the day. Ben is capable of being a very good reader but is behind Nick on ability currently, as he is just not the type to want to sit and read by himself much at this age. He is Mr. Pretend and that is how he spends the majority of his day. He loves to be read to and he enjoys taking turns reading with Nick when the dad or I sit down to read with them. Nick wants to read everything these days so, even if we sit down to read with them, if it is close to his level, he wants to help read it. I really believe Ben will eventually love to read because he really enjoys a great story and loves to be read to. His constant pretending has been very good for Nick too. I don't think Nick would have been quite so much into pretending if it were not for Ben. They are both very good for each other in so many ways.

I am going to catch up on some online reading now. I have been away way too long and need to catch up on what is really going on out there:). Have a great day.