When it is time to settle...

That may seem like a funny title, considering we have lived in the same town for 9 years and the same house for nearly 7 of those years. But, when you take into consideration that in the last twelve months we have had our house on the market to sell, hoping to buy a small ranchette... and then took it off the market because that fell through... and then we started making plans to build on an acre lot we have in New Braunfels... but then we decided to join a church plant on the far NW side of San Antonio and called off the home building... so then we began looking for homes closer to the church plant only to decide to stay where we are due to health and other issues with parents... it feels like we are just settling back in.

This past year has been an emotional roller coaster. I am not a mover by nature, I stayed in the same house nearly all growing up, and in college only moved once. My husband loves moving, but he will admit, he doesn't do any of the prep work, so it is just fun for him, like getting a new techie toy. I get totally stressed out by the process, it takes me forever to figure out where things are going to go, not to mention the management of kids and still needing to cook three meals and a handful of snacks each day, schooling them and keeping up with laundry fit in somewhere too. When we lived "show ready" last March, we really didn't get much else done. And even after we decided to rent the house, and do any needed work after we moved, there was still the mental energy and time spent on looking at houses and figuring out price ranges and best parts of town.

I have also been rearranging and putting up new stuff on the walls... like this wall layout for the dining room/classroom... I want to put some words above the maps and cork board, but I am not sure of what just yet...

And then, there was the red chair in my living room. It is tucked away into a corner and doesn't get as much attention from the children as the couches with removable cushions. Elliott calls it "my office" as I keep myself surrounded by books and keep my laptop close by. Lately, I haven't been able to go into "my office" because the piles around it were too high and precariously balanced that I was afraid to leap over for fear of an avalanche. I actually needed to get some work done on the computer tonight, so I couldn't ignore the mess any longer... here was my mid-point... chair and laptop freed from the bottom so I could blog this post.

And now, back to work...