Catching up...in a new place

I've been away from blogging for too long, and I know my mother-in-law is anxious for me to get back to it, even if she's the only one. So, I'm going to spend some time trying to catch up on the last couple of months. The reason I've neglected my blog, is that I was spending time packing up my house, taking a break for a short vacation, and then moving into a new house while trying to start renovating it. Oh yeah, and I'm still raising the two short people who live in our house. Yeah, we decided to keep them in the move. It was up in the air for awhile, but in the end we decided they were too old to leave on Heath's firehouse steps.

They were actually my biggest concern in all of this mess. I had my own emotions over leaving our other house, even though I was really excited about the new one, but I was mostly concerned about how my kiddos would take it. Scout is generally easy-going, and is really too young to get it, anyway, but my sweet, sentimental Garrett was worrying me. He didn't quite understand what we were taking with us, and would often ask at a random time during the day if we were taking something, like his bed, our closets, or the air vents. We talked up the new house as much as we could, though, in the end, I had to come to peace with the fact that he would miss the old house to some degree no matter what. I felt sad about leaving the place where Garrett learned to walk, where all of my kids' birthday parties have been so far, and Scout's first home. G was just going to miss it because it was all he'd ever known, even though it wasn't his first home.

He has adjusted surprisingly well. We traded in a three-year old house for a thirty-year old one, which has been pretty neglected most of those years. Before we moved, G kept saying that the new house was "not very nice", and then I'd follow with, "but we're going to make it...", "nice", he'd finish. The first night we spent here, the kids just had beds in their rooms, the only improvements we'd done were pulling out the old flooring and sanding the concrete below it, and most of our things were in complete disarray. Without belittling the exhausting effort it took to get the house to that state, it was a wreck. As Garrett climbed into his bunk, I asked what he thought of his new room and finally staying in our new house. He smiled his sweet, sincere smile, and said, "The house turned out great, Mommy!" Since then, he's expressed a desire to go to our old house only a handful of times, and both kids seem to be happy.

Though we have a long road ahead of us with this renovation, we feel blessed to be here, and Ryan and I wouldn't trade it. I have to give my hubby credit for seeing the gem that this sad, neglected little house can be. I won't pretend that it's anywhere close to even halfway finished - we are, after all, doing most of the work ourselves - but visit us in a few years. I think the gem will be starting to shine!