Monday 25 November 2013

Hello again.





Oh where to begin. Almost 7 weeks later and our little Dani has gone and turned the big one; one candle on her cake, one mama with her heart bursting watching her baby take it all in. It was as though she knew that day was all hers. I can't wait to share pictures and thoughts on our sweet and simple day.
And before that, Halloween whizzed by (ours was spectacular and I wouldn't change any of it, well except to buy donuts rather than frying them myself because sometimes storebought really is better). I also was all set to let loose my rant on how everyone seems to be glossing over poor Thanksgiving this year and all I see and hear these days is ChristmasChristmasChristmas. Already?! Maybe it's just me feeling even more overwhelmed than usual since we're knee-deep in wallpaper and hunting for the just-right furniture. My dear friend and I orchestrated a little Plymouth Day at our house last week where we made cornbread, corn husk dolls, talked about the first Thanksgiving (in puppet show form, which was a bust. Mila was all, "I'm not." Ha!) And today we experienced Vero's first ever corn maze, which although the stalks weren't higher than our heads like the midwestern ones likely are...was pretty crazy silly fun (related: snacks. everything's better with snacks!). It ended with ice cream and a giant tractor, what's not to like? 

The last time I blogged was the night before we moved. Now that was a terribly exhausting day. Steve and his buddy drove a big ole u-haul back and forth between our old apartment and new house 3 times. When he finally got home just before midnight, the girls sleeping on mattresses in our bedroom, we hugged and smooched and high-fived...we did it! We're home! Except...it didn't exactly feel like home? It felt like someone else's home. And it still does, in some ways. We're still adjusting and trying and often failing, stumbling when we grope around for a light switch that isn't there because we don't yet know where everything is by memory. Nothing is familiar. We're getting used to a new community. Getting used to a growing "Things We Need" list that lives inside my phone, ticking off everything from new drawer pulls (roosters in the kitchen, y'all are on borrowed time!) to shoe organizers to a drying rack. We're figuring out how to make this home work for us, and not the other way around. I think that's crucial. We're liking it here, but this in-between time is stressful. I wasn't expecting that. You would think I would be, what with all the moving around that we've done in the last 9 years (oh, an anniversary happened too! we even got away for a date, thanks Marm :) But there's something about having children...that protective mama bear instinct comes out and all you want to do is give them an instant haven, a place where everything is going to be okay. Home. I'm describing the essence of what home means to me. We're not quite there yet, but it's coming along. I feel it with every rip of wallpaper, every removal of ugly hardware and crossing of things off my beloved lists.


This Thanksgiving 2013, I am more thankful than ever for my family. My biggest driving force in carving out something special out of this new home of ours. They make it all worthwhile, over and over again.


I'll hopefully be back this weekend with pictures and maybe another tried and true recipe? Happy Thanksgiving!