I've been away from here for a while, being overwhelmed (mostly feeling overwhelmed) by life and all that it has thrown at me in the last few months. Mostly I've stayed away because I didn't want to bore you with the constant, "oh, poor me, my life really stinks right now" routine- because overall, it doesn't, really. Yet lately I have felt myself gravitating away from my surroundings, friends and even family and moving toward a quiet, comforting place within myself. Call it coping, call it safe, call it whatever, but I am starting to see it for what it is, an escape from reality... and from the disappointment of not being able to live life in the way I really want to be living it. Am I making any sense? I hope so...!
Oh sure, I've been staying positive and have decided to truly embrace the fact that we are moving (again) and to a far, far away place (it's really not that far...) that I never in a million years would have imagined my family ending up in... Alabama.
But it's okay! I promise. I am just feeling slightly sorry for my sad self. I'm allowed, aren't I? After all, my days are now filled with de-cluttering and cleaning (constantly) our house, all in preparation for potential buyers (strangers) to walk through, phone calls with Realtors, both here and there, online house hunting, working with our relocation agent, and trying my best to support my husband through all of this, and not be completely absent from my children's lives...
Anyway, this past week, we took a road trip out to Birmingham and stayed for a few days. It was a whirlwind of driving, exploring different towns, looking at houses, scouring maps and searching for county lines, talks of the future, time in the hotel pool, getting lost in Jumbo sized neighborhoods, and figuring out which restaurants foods the kids would endure.
While Pete had to work one day, I did however, make some time to visit the Birmingham Zoo and treat Nate to his first ever strawberry milkshake...both were awesome to see.
Otherwise, I've been trying to retain a sense of
normalcy for the kids, making sure we still have a good balance of play time and learning time. We started having a "
circle time" each morning, spending about 10-15 minutes talking about the day of the week, month, season, our plans for the day, and 1-2 lessons about music, history, science, etc... I have been using
What Your Preschooler Needs to Know and have really enjoyed it as much as the kids!
Nate and Jules have also become completely fascinated by water and how much fun it can provide. Needless to say however, we've had to have a few discussions about not being wasteful with it, (or not spraying the hose 3 inches away from your sister's head...).
One last,
positive note- We finally got our blueberries! For some reason, our bushes decided that they wanted to hold off a few weeks longer than all of the other blueberry bushes in the world... But they are here now, and I have been treating myself to
peach sorbet with blueberries every few nights over the last two weeks...now that is some great self pity food!
While Nate and Juliana attend preschool several mornings a week, Pete and I still feel it to be a great responsibility of parenthood to implement daily learning at home as well. With that in mind, and my background working with Montessori, (I worked as an assistant teacher at a Montessori preschool during college) I couldn't think of a better method to apply to our children's daily lives.
-Embrace their desire to be independent and to want to do things for themselves.
Nate and Jules loaded up on hot dogs and brownies, made new friends, ran like wild, played like the day had just begun and later, slept soundly all night...it was great.
Or,