state of the home address

This post is mainly for my parents, who arrive next weekend and need to be forewarned.... and also for me, so in the months/years to come when I wonder how we made it through this season, I'll remember a few telling details :)

So here goes, the state of the home address, when momma just isn't feeling that good!

1. We are constantly out of silverware.  I simply cannot explain this, other than to conclude that when I am not spending my days on the couch I must wash a lot of silverware.  I cannot tell you how many times over the past weeks I have heard "but there are no more spoons". 

2. I have not yet put away the clothes I unpacked from our road trip (we got home ten days ago).  I did put the kids clothes in a big laundry bucket, and Julianna put them away (sweet little girl, she is doing a lion's share of work these days).  But my clothes, well I've moved them from a pile on the bed, to the floor, to the bedside table (they didn't all fit), back to the floor again.  Since I rarely change out of my pajamas this particular arrangement is working out just fine.

3. The menu planning/weekly home calendar that I print and usually use to organize our entire week is hanging (right where it should be) on the side of the fridge.  It hasn't been updated in weeks. 

4. I realized last week, for the first time since moving here, that exactly zero restaurants deliver to our home.  This has never bothered me before.  It is currently the source of much consternation.  If only one teeny tiny little restaurant would bring me something, anything to feed the troops.... ahh!!!  I can only dream.

5. The oven door pull is dusty.  I don't cook.  My house helper has started cooking three meals a week, but she's never seen (nor used) an oven (welcome to Asia.... stir-fry heaven).  Matt, well, he has proven again and again that he really is Superman.  But he's running the busiest work weeks of his year, and trying to support our family as best he can, so his oven usage (usually rare) is non-existent.  One day I will bake again.

6. I am constantly with my Kindle.  I am rarely off the couch for more than about fifteen minutes at a time.  When the kids are up and about I do my best to win the "present yet simultaneously absent parent of the year" award.  When the kids are sleeping and I feel good enough, I read. 

7.  Laundry is everywhere.  Some dirty, some clean.  It's a good day that I manage to put an entire load of laundry through it's paces...... first washer, hang on the line, bring inside, fold, put away.  [Our weather is way too hot and sunny to use the dryer much at all - though I do resort to it some - but if I use the dryer I have to open the windows to vent, and if I open the windows then I turn off the air con, and if I turn off the air con it's really hot inside, so the best option is just hang it outside :)]  So laundry, in it's various states (waiting for the washer, wet in the bucket needing to be hung, on the line outside, piled on the sofa but not folded, folded but not put away)..... it's taking over our home! 

8.  MY KIDS.  Oh, sweet littles.  They are hanging in there, really, they are.  But it's a tough stretch for them too.  I know they miss 'the old me' and I miss them too.  I mean, we're all still here, but it's a different kind of 'here' and it's not nearly as fun.  So I can't wait to get back down on the floor and really play, to serve them lunch, to read piles of books in one sitting, to go for walks and enjoy little outings, to color and craft and do puzzles and all that.  Soon, little ones, soon.

So, Mom and Dad, welcome to our new reality.  Hopefully passing soon.  But we'll be REAL glad for you to be here! 

and in light of all that - and the fact that Matt leaves crack of dawn tomorrow for a six day trip..... we're moving!  Yep, me and the kids, moving in to town to be near friends, people who can help, and restaurants that bring food!  We'll be back Tuesday afternoon (if I feel good enough to move the family) or we'll wait til Matt gets in late Tuesday and then move back out here on Wednesday.

Packing our swimsuits since the pool is literally at the bottom of the building we'll be living in, and surely I can drag myself that far - right?  Plus, I've had two pretty good days in a row, so maybe the worst is behind me??!!??