Every Little Thing Needs Rain

 It never rains here.  Months go by without a single drop of moisture falling from the sky.  And then, when the sky does open up and nourishment falls down from heaven, the world stops to watch.  Even my children are amazed and stare at the rain drops they rarely see.  We don’t seem to know how thirsty we are until it finally rains, and then we can’t stop breathing it in, we can’t stop absorbing it.  Every little thing needs rain, even children.

On Wednesday it rained for about an hour.  We opened up the windows and watched the world get washed clean.  Life felt fresh and new again.  It was a beautiful day.



Linked up with Cheryl for Makes My Monday

Don’t worry, I’ve got the Carpe Diem thing covered

A while back there was a post circulating titled Don’t Carpe Diem.  Did you read it?  It was pretty good and like most things I read I agreed and disagreed at the same time.  Yesterday, however, I had my own Carpe Diem experience that reminded me of this post.

I was at the grocery store with all three kids.  The only cart that accommodates my brood at the store is a giant car cart that takes up a whole isle.  The girls sit close to me in a big plastic car with steering wheels while Isaiah starts in the basket and gets out and walks as it fills up with food. We are quite the sight, me struggling to push the 80lb cart without groceries, two girls in the car “beeping” the horns and giggling like crazy, 4 year old in the basket asking questions about everything, me doing my best to answer. 

I pick up a pint of blackberries.  “Why are we getting those?” asks Isaiah.

“Because they are on sale for $.99 a pint.”

“Can we get blueberries?”

“Not this week.”

“Why not?”

“Because their $3.99 a pint and that’s not a good price.  Don’t worry, they will be in season soon so we can buy them then.”

“What does “in season” mean?”

“In season is when fruit or veggies are ripe and they get picked.  It’s the best time to buy that fruit because they taste the best.”

This is the point where our conversation stopped.  Not because he stopped asking questions or I stopped answering them but because a nice old lady interrupted me to tell me what a great job I was doing teaching my son about food and shopping.  She talk to me from the celery all the way to the oranges, so any conversations  I could have had about picking apples or why we eat salad were lost. 

After stopping to weigh our produce, one of Isaiah’s favorite things to do in a grocery store, we emerged from the produce and went to the deli.  It was at this point where Cadee and Ky started playing their favorite game “Con-old-ladies-into-saying-I’m-cute”.  The object is to get as many people as possible to stop me in my tracks and tell me how adorable my kids are.  They pull out all the stops for this one and are masters of getting the attention of even the most preoccupied shopper.  Cadee prefers the direct approach of waving and saying “Hi” to every passing shoppers.  Ky is a little more subtle, she make eye contact and when they see her she starts to giggle.  The poor unsuspecting strangers can’t help themselves but get sucked into a game of waving and smiling.  Who can resist cute twins who say “Hi” first?

While I prefer this game to the alternative of throwing a fit and screaming bloody murder throughout the store, it does make my shopping trip much longer.  Some customers can wave hi and keep walking, but at least one per isle stops me to tell me how cute my kids are, what a lucky mom I am, how their daughter’s sister’s friend has twins, and how much they miss the days when their kids were little.  They tell me to “Carpe Diem” and treasure this time and really enjoy my kids.  It’s not their fault they can’t resist the charms of my adorable children.  Believe me, I know how cute they can be and I can’t blame them for getting sucked in.  However, every minute I spend talking to 8 different strangers yesterday was a minute less I have to enjoy my kids.

The thing is, I KNOW how lucky I am.  I AM enjoying as much of this age and stage as I can.  I don’t mind taking the kids to the store with me.  It’s fun to talk about produce with my son and watch the girls entertain the little old ladies.  Personally, I think I’m pretty good at the whole “Carpe Diem” thing.  And I would think it was obvious to the passing customers that I AM good at this.  After all, I stopped to let my son weigh every bag of produce in our cart because he wanted to.  We took five minutes out of our trip to figure out which was the heaviest and which was lightest.  A mom who is too busy to “Carpe Diem” wouldn’t have done that.   Trust me, I’ve got the “Carpe Diem” thing covered.

Any given errand wouldn’t be complete without someone noticing us and saying something.  I would feel weird if we went a whole day without a single “Carpe Diem” style comment or at the minimum acknowledgment of how cute my kids are or the fact that they are twins.  But they aren’t really adding anything to my life by telling me to seize the day or how lucky I am or how I should enjoy every minute my kids are small.  I know time passes quickly, and the time they take to tell me all of this is more or less wasted.  I mean, if no one stopped me in the grocery store yesterday I would have had an extra 30 minutes with my kids.  Instead the trip took me almost two hours, which put me behind and made me have to work faster and NOT spend as much time enjoying my kids. While I appreciate the sentiment of all 8 ladies I talked to yesterday, I think I’ve got this Carpe Diem thing down.  I don’t need any help in that department. 

So, to anyone who happens to shop at the grocery store where I live, LISTEN UP!

Thank you for noticing how cute my kids are.  I know time flies, I’m doing my best to enjoy it.  However, I would enjoy it more if I spent a little less time talking to strangers and more time talking to my kids.  While I’m sure everything you have to say is super important for me to hear, I’ve got the “Carpe Diem” thing under control, I don’t need help in that department. From now on my conversations with strangers limit is 3 people.  I hope you understand I’m not trying to be rude by brushing you off, but I can only take so much time away from my kids for random people.  If you happen to be stranger number 4, you might get cut off.  I’m sorry.  But 8 is too many and I’m not doing that again.  I hope you understand.

-dollimama

BPP- I can’t think addition

 

• Everything in the house department is going well.  On Monday they started replacing the roof.  They were supposed to be done by Friday, but they weren’t even close to being finished.  Hopefully they will finished early next week.  After it’s done the mortgage company will send someone to appraise the house, which should be the last big hoop we have to jump through.  Our closing date is Feb 17.  Fingers crossed that continues to go well!
• On Wednesday I started to feel under the weather, by Friday I was knocked on my rear with a crappy cold.  Unfortunately I had a baby shower to host this weekend and I did all the food, so I couldn’t stay on my rear.  That sucked.
• The baby shower was yesterday, and while we had a lot of fun (and my friend got a lot of great stuff) I am so glad it’s over.  It’s been sitting over my head since the beginning of January, and now I feel like I can really focus on packing instead of trying to do both. 
• I’ve been a pinterest addict for a while, but buying a new house has really sent me over the edge.  I find myself spending any spare time online I have looking at inspiring home décor and DIY tutorials via pinterest.  If you haven’t joined yet you should STAY AWAY.  Seriously.  Pineterest is so awesome, but do you really need another time sucking site begging for attention?  Probably not.  Meanwhile, I have gotten some awesome ideas, so I can’t complain that much
• I can’t wait until there is room in my brain for more that “I have to clean” and “I have to pack” because those are the only 2 sentences that are always present in my mind.  I meant to make this post longer and more awesome, but I can’t.  I have to clean and pack.

That’s all folks.  I’m sorry I wasted 5 minutes of your time.  7 if you’re a slow reader.  It' won’t happen again.  Actually, it probably will.

On letting go and starting over

It’s been a long time since I lived in the same house for more than 2 years.  While packing and moving can be a pain, it can also be therapeutic.  Like the beginning of a new year, a different residence is a sort of clean slate, one you can start over in.

Of course this depends on how much of your old house you move with you.  I try to keep the “stuff” I own to a minimum.  I try to purge often, getting rid of outgrown clothing and broken toys.  Of random pieces of plastic and dollar store finds that should never have been bought to begin with. 

As I packing our kitchen, I’m so tempted to throw away all our old dishes and pots and pans.  In our new house, the one we own, I want to have nice new things, not whatever works and is cheep.  I want a matching dinning set.  We had a nice one, but it’s got so many missing broken pieces now that it makes more sense to start over than replace what’s been lost.  I want new beautiful pans, not purchased at Ikea, ones that won’t burn and stand up to high heat.  I want to leave most of this junk I’ve collected behind and really start over.  New house, new things.

But I can’t.  I have to take the old, transient life with me, at least for a little while.  I can’t afford to replace it all at once.  As much as I want a new clean slate, I can’t really have one.  We will be starting with what we already have, not matter how much I want to leave it all behind.  It will take time to start over.  It will take time to morph our new, outdated house into a home.  It will take time to decorate and make it mine.  Time to replace the things that have been lost or broken and time to settle into a new domestic, home-owner life.

I feel like I’m stepping out of a comfort zone and into something big.  I’ve never painted, I don’t really decorate.  Our drill is pretty new and this is the first place we have even hung shelves.  I keep it simple and cheep because I hate spending money.  And we are always leaving.  I have one foot out the door, I know the count down, so why spend time and money we don’t have to decorate? 

This house has felt different.  For one thing, it’s a house and not an apartment.  But knowing I would be in the same town for more than two years has really helped me let go and loosen up.  The new house, the first one we have ever bought, excites me and scares me more than I can admit.

It’s where my kids with start school.  We’ll be outside by the tree, taking pictures with new backpacks and pressed polo's.  We will celebrate birthdays and holidays with friends and family packed into the living room.  The kids will do their homework at the dining room table and play tag with their friends in the back yard.  They will stomp up the stairs when I’m being unfair and come crying to me when the world is.  It’s the first house they will really remember.  It’s where their childhood will be lived.

I can’t wait for new dishes and pots and pans.  I can’t wait to paint the walls and hang curtains.  But mostly I can’t wait to stop moving from house to house and make a home, one that’s worth being in pictures and remembering fondly for decades to come.  I know it will take time, effort, energy and money to make it into what I want it to be, but I can’t wait to start.


linked up with shell for Pour Your Hear Out

A long time coming

My heart and mind are at the new house.  I’m having a hard time focusing on anything else. 

Jon and I were willing to walk away.  There were issues that needed to be dealt with (specifically the roof) and we didn’t think the sellers were willing to negotiate any more.  But the very next day we found out that we could insure the house and roof under State Farm, as long as it was built Wind Storm Certified (which it was).  This was really good news, and we were back on track to buy this house. 

Later that day I went to get the foundation inspected.  He told me the whole house needed to be pier beamed, costing a total of $10,000!  What?  This caught us by surprised, as the foundation had been inspected recently and there were no problems.  Our OCD general inspector who spent 5 and a half hours focusing on every little detail wasn’t worried, so why was this guy saying we had damage?

We got a second opinion, and just as we suspected, the first guy lied.  OK, he didn’t lie as much as he exaggerated the truth.  We are in a 12 month drought, which causes the outside of the house to dry up and soil deep under the house stays wet, which causes movement in the house.  Our foundation is FINE, there is no movement, but the outside is dry and desperately needs to be maintained.  If it goes another 6 months without an owner taking care of it, there could be problems, but for now it’s in great condition.

So that gave us another bargaining chip.  The owners live out of state, and while they are willing to rent or sell the property, it’s been vacant for 6 months.  They need to sell that place before it really starts causing problems and costing money. 

We presented our amendment to the original contract, we raised our offer slightly but requested a brand new wind certified 25 year roof.  I didn’t think they would go for it.  They were taking a pretty good hit with our original offer.  But, to my surprise, they said YES!!!

I can’t believe it!  Not only are we getting a house in the neighborhood we want with a yard we want but a brand new roof as well! 

There are still plenty of other things that will need to be replaced soon.  The built in oven looks like it was made in 1950.  That needs to be replaced.  The air conditioner has a few years left on it.  The whole house needs little updates.  But the biggest, scariest problem, the roof, will be dealt with before we close. 

Now comes the fun part: Money.  But that’s Jon's department so I don’t have to do that much except be supportive and listen.  And I have to take care of the other fun part: Packing.  With an approximate closing date of February 17, I have to get moving.  Literally. 

I can’t tell you how excited and nervous I am.  This is a HUGE thing for us, I can’t believe we are actually buying a house.  With everything that has happened the last 5 years (including but not limited to adding 3 kids to the family) it seemed like it would take forever to get to a place where we could buy a house.  Every time we turned around there seemed to be a new expensive problem to deal with, a major set back that pushed our normal “American Dream” farther away.  And while I was content to be renter as long as it took, I’m so glad that phase is quickly coming to an end.

We haven’t made the big Facebook announcement yet.  I think we will wait a few weeks, until the Money part is all worked out.  Or mostly worked out.  I would hate to tell all 450 of my closest friends we are buying a house just to turn around and say “Just kidding, it didn’t happen!”.  That’s the worst.  But as soon as we feel more secure and sure about everything, I will post a virtual tour for you guys.  Thanks for all your help and support the past 2 weeks, it has been great to have you all to talk to about this.  I feel like I should warn you that I might go crazy in the next 31 days, but you already knew that.