Lately

Life's been all kinds of crazy lately. Things are always a bit less structured in the summer time. The kids go to different camps every week since Ken and I are both working. It's nice that they get so many different, fun opportunities, but the transportation gets tricky some days and that makes my brain hurt.

This year things are a bit more crazy because we've got our house on the market and we're trying to move. I've packed up a lot of stuff that we don't need right away, but then I get worried that we won't have moved by Christmas and all our decorations will be packed away. This in-between stage is a hard place to live.

We've looked at some houses. I fell in love with one, but someone else put in a better offer and we had to realize that it wasn't meant to be. I've seen some others that were just NOT what we wanted and then I leave and think, "But what if that's our only choice?!"

I hate this big feeling of being unsettled. And I know that if it's stressful on me, it's stressful on the kids too. They can feel the off-ness in the house. We've had more crying, whining, and fighting than usual lately. We've been doing a lot of deep breathing together and taking some time away to calm down before responding to things. I've been trying to stay strictly consistent with bedtimes, which is kinda no fun in the summer. It seems to help, though.

Here are some other things going on:

Getting my room all cleaned up for real estate pictures

Frances' dentist taking the time to explain her x-rays to her. <3

A nice contemplative walk the other night. (Except for Ben, who only ran)

The fish tank looks BETTER after I stopped feeding the fish and cleaning the water. If only kids would thrive on such neglect!

We met a very nice, all-female, Canadian biker gang in the Food Lion parking lot. They were a hoot to talk to!

Frances is getting ready for sewing camp this week. It turns out she's the only one in the class, so she's essentially getting private lessons!

Henry's at overnight soccer camp this week. He's been so excited all summer to get there!

Trying to keep consistent bedtimes doesn't mean this one doesn't fall asleep while refusing to eat dinner. It was those horrible nasty pork chops he didn't want to eat!

The boys' room. It's pretty clean most of the time. I only had to make the beds.