What a day! The boys and Evany and I spent all morning hanging out at a park with several of Jace's classmates. At our school, the Pre-K students go to school for a full day on Tuesday and Thursday, homeschool on Wednesdays, and hang out on Mondays and Fridays. So we regularly get together for playdates Friday mornings to hang out after the older kids get dropped off at school.
Today was literally the first day in months it's been warm enough for the kids to wear shorts, and I took full advantage before we have to pack all the warm weather clothes up. The boys had a blast and played literally nonstop for hours, which freed me up to chat with friends and get everyone caught up on our big move. I wish I could go on a play date with all my readers, too. It would be a lot easier to explain why we're moving in person! There are some things it's harder to share clearly online, and this is one of them. While most of the people who read this blog are great, there are others who keep tabs on it just to make my life a little harder, and so I often leave some things out because it's just not worth the drama. So I hope you've all "known" me long enough to know that I don't take a move like this lightly at all.
One of my very close friends, Laura, turned up at the park to bestow a pretty awesome gift upon me...she decided she wanted to detail my van for our big road trip. So her kids joined the crew and hung out after lunch while she literally made my van sparkle. It was so impressive. We live in the van and usually eat at least one meal a day in there on the way to or from somewhere or other, so it was far from pristine. But it's looking amazing right now! Thank you, Laura! She ended up coming back home with us after the park and finishing up and we got to sit and chat over salad and pizza when she was done. It was really nice and it had been way too long!
My mom and I spent the afternoon packing up and and sorting through various things and I can see progress, but it's slow going. We've been in this house for three years and we've got a lot of stuff to show for it. It's hard to streamline and decide what goes into storage and what comes with us. Now I'm remembering why I don't like cross country moves! I have found several shoes that I haven't been able to find the matching shoe to for a while, so that was exciting. In other news, I think I may be allergic to dust.
Seth and Evany became roommates this week to free up my bedroom for packing and sorting. It was becoming way too hard to get anything done when every bedroom of the house had a sleeping kid in it. I thought it would be ugly, but it's gone surprisingly well. Evany is a crazy light sleeper, but Seth is deaf at night, so once he's out, he's out. It's funny seeing two cribs in a room together again...It's been years since I've had two in cribs sharing a room! It has made me realize how different my bedtime routine is with the two of them, though. I guess now that they're in the same room I'll have to do the same stuff with them to be fair.
Seth has had an amazing week as far as school and therapy go. It's very bittersweet. He's finally doing better and being more communicative. I don't know if he's turning a corner and he'll just continue on even when we change therapists and Audiologists in Indiana, or if we'll have to go through another phase where he shuts down. I really, really hope not. I cried when we saw our Audiologist for the last time on Wednesday. Seth actually let her pick him up and hug him, which is huge. HUGE. She's been with him since he was born, basically. He was a month old when she met him, and she has been an amazing sounding board for me over the years as we chose a brand and navigated the waters of early implantation. She's amazing, all of his Audis are. I'll miss them a lot. Luckily, the Audiologist we're transferring to is very highly recommended by out current Audiologist, and they have known each other for many years. I know if she's recommending her Seth will be in very capable, very skilled hands. Of course we will be going from driving forty minutes for mappings to driving three hours. The upside is he only has to be mapped every four months now. While Fort Wayne is a bigger city, there are lots of things that we won't have as easy access to as we do now. It'll be an adjustment.
Another adjustment we'll be making is that for the rest of the school year, I will be homeschooling the kids full time. With just March, April, and May to go, it seems silly to enroll them in a school when we're not sure what district we'll end up in. I don't want to switch them again in the fall. Plus it just seems better to keep things as much the same as possible to give them time to adjust. So instead of homeschooling two days a week, I'll be doing it five. But the directors of our school have been amazing and offered to let us take all the curriculum the kids currently use and just send it back at the end of the year. Both Ava and Jace's teachers are going to help me with lesson plans and supplemental stuff, so I know they will continue getting the great education they're receiving now, since I love the curriculums we use (A Beka for reading, Story of the World for history, Saxon for math...and I'm forgetting some). And I figure two and a half months is a good trial period to decide what our plan is going to be for next year. I'm actually pretty excited about it.
As far as my school goes, I'll be able to continue all my classes as I'm doing now. All five of them are online and I lucked out this semester and have no midterms or finals that have to be completed on campus. It was a huge blessing that it worked out that way, because I'm really committed to school being a priority no matter what. Speaking of school, I've got a test to take! I hope everyone is having a great night!
