Month In Review

I start this off by saying "I can't believe it's been a whole month!" but I'd be lying through my teeth! It's been a long month but we're all here: healthy and just fine.

Our last week in Jacksonville was insane, to say that absolute least. The Boone was going to suck every last drop out of John that it could. He worked incredible hours until the very last day. Thankfully, my parents took the kids for about a week while I had the pre-move inspection, packers and then movers. 

We drove down, separately, very late on a Friday night and then spent just a few days in Land O'Lakes with my family. Thinking we were going to meet our shipment, we started our drive on a Tuesday to get to Virginia (with a stop in Charleston, SC) on Thursday. While in Charleston -actually, we were loading up to finish the drive- I received a call from the truck driver. He informed me he was ready to deliver. Fantastic, I'm eight hours away with three kids so that's like 12 hours. I hung up the phone, crying, as I had just thrown out my back and can barely move...and now I have to drive. It was painful on so many different levels. 

Here is the trip, in pictures. I've tried to remove the painful parts and just remember the fun stuff! 

 Stopped in Georgia. We did it old school with picnic lunches. 

Checking out the "shooter guns" at the 'Del.  

Walking in to Daddy's old barracks.  

Lunching in North Carolina 

 Pumpkin pickin' the first Saturday here. 

Since we had no furniture, we took little trips. This doughnut place was in 

Duck, NC in the Outter Banks.  

 Brotherly love in Kitty Hawk.

Eli found a fishing lure and thought he had found a friend

for life.  

He loved that little fishy!

 Of course, he loved it to death...

Baby Deacon, of course, was a trooper; he nursed and fell asleep on the beach.  

Our friends, Dan and Joy, helped tremendously. One night Joy prepared and packed an 

entire meal. The boys had fun fighting...I mean eating on the floor.  

Fall in our neighbor's yard. Our was filled with boxes and paper.  

The truck, finally! 

What is that white, powdery, substance? Oh, why, it's a 10 pound (OPEN!) bag of flour that was packed. Thank you Sir Mover, but I'd rather buy a new bag when I arrive. 

Double-Decker Car Garage

For some reason, I receive Family Fun magazine. I'm really not sure where it comes from: Christmas gift, perhaps? Nonetheless, this month, I flipped right to the page with this craft (I've tried to link several times, but something isn't working). 

Any way, you'll need:

two cereal boxes, 5 toilet paper tubes (I used a toilet paper roll and two paper towel rolls, cut),

glue and decorating items -like yellow construction paper to cover the tubes, markers

Cut all tubes to make 5 tubes of equal heights. 

Cut one cereal box so that you have an almost enclosed space with four sides remaining. 

Cut another cereal box so only one flat panel remains for the bottom. Glue the pillars in place

to the top level, glue to the bottom. Cut strips from one box to create ramps, then cut the top level to 

make an outlet for the cars to go down the ramps. 

Obviously, I skipped using any sort of creativity with the yellow construction paper. 

This would be a great craft for brothers gifting hand-made items to each other for Christmas.

Turner loves his garage and has played with it for days on end! 

Fall In Florida

Today we had the pleasure of attending a birthday party at the beach. It was the absolute most perfect "fall" day here on the First Coast. 

Running on the dunes.

Turner just hanging with Lynn.

Eli had a great time digging with a "shubble." 

Gotta love beach towns! No table? No problem! 

84 degrees and sunny at the end of September. Man, are we going to miss this! 

Homeschool

Even though I've toyed with the idea when Japan was a duty station possibility, I never thought (in a million years) I'd home school.

Yes, I just said home school. Home learning. Home education.

Yikes.

Three boys: one preschooler, one toddler and an infant.

I am, however, looking forward to it. There will be lots of crazy times and fun to be had. I am planning on a very basic traditional yet Waldorf inspired curriculum.

Want to see what we're up to?

Follow our adventures on Oh! The Things You'll Know...

And no, I will not be birthing 15 other children. Thankyouverymuch.

Eeeeew, I'm Infected!

I've caught what everyone seems to have...

Keep-up-with-everyone-itis. Bleah. It's draining.

I ran across this post and realized what's been ailing me: distractions. That weird Ouija board like infection that made my fingers automatically type "fa..." and then hit "enter." Without thought, I'd log right in to Facebook and get sucked in to scrolling down the news feed. At least 10 minutes wasted.

Friend doing something interesting?

CLICK

Yikes, sounds like a crappy day for you.

20 seconds wasted on someone's complaining.

CLICK

Hmm, that kid is really growing up. Wait. Who's kid is that?

WHA????

That's Deacon?

BLINK

30 minutes, at least, this particular morning. Wasted. Wasted on a distraction. Wasted on someone else's life.

It was without much thought that I removed the application from my already addictive smartphone. I logged out of Facebook and had an incredibly productive day doing things around the house.

This is my job: to be distracted by MY family. Not someone else's.

So, now I won't know that you go new jeans and mine are from last fall. I won't know that your new haircut rocks and I won't know that your kid puked 10 times last night and your husband was out late, again.

Ooops.

Call me crazy, but the people that I want to stay in touch with are right here.

It Had To Happen

I took Eli to get his first hair cut. I didn't want the day to come, but, it had to happen. I love taking Eli out to do things like this because he's so open to the experience.

He was a bit unsure, of course.

All the ladies "ooohed" and "aaahed" at the adorable curls. He was perfect, sitting in that chair. He barely moved and was incredibly well behaved. Especially for a little boy that can't stand to stay still!

He got down from the chair and did this funny little dance and then exclaimed

"I got my hair cut!"

After his hair cut, we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts. I thought he was going to go crazy with all the options, but finally settled on a sprinkle doughnut! He loved just sitting in the shop to eat it...and I loved watching him.

Triage

So, here's how it works around here: Triage. I treat the worst, most serious, wounds and then go to the next patient or situation.

Quick what needs attention first?

A.) road rash on the top of a foot

B.) kitchen sink build-up that may warrant a visit from the "Clean House" ladies

C.) a floor that hasn't been completely mopped for over two months

D.) a tower of 23 blocks that's about to topple over

E.) showering for the first time in more days than you care to know

The correct answer is D.) a tower of 23 blocks that's about to topple over. Why? Because that's what my boys want. They want to play. Eli cried for not even three seconds over the nasty abrasion on the top of his foot, the cleaning (ahem, lack thereof) drives me absolutely insane but my boys are just this age once. One single time in years and years and lots of wonderful years.

Someone recently said to me "I stopped caring about the toys on the floor when I realized they wouldn't be there forever." It resonated in a way no other words have. My babies won't remember the spotless floors, the organic, home made snacks painstakingly prepared; they will remember the fun at the beach, the games and the wonderful days digging in the dirt.

For now, I triage. I wipe up blow-outs, let Deacon cry for two minutes so I can show Turner I am paying attention and bend down to make eye contact with Eli. The from scratch bread may be over kneaded, dinner may consist entirely of what many consider snack items and my husband may wonder if I ever brush my teeth...

But we are happy.