Saturday, May 30, 2015

Rainy Days and Broken Crayons


We've been in our new home just about three weeks and it's rained every day except one. We've had a few days in a row recently where it's rained all day and was cold. I was hearing the dreaded "B" word way too often. 

"Mom, I'm Bored!" 

The kids still had their school supplies in their backpacks. We hadn't unpacked them in the move. It was just low on my to do list but we dug through them and found all the broken crayons that accumulate through a school year. We had tons of crayons between three kids. I'll kind of be happy when Yip and Yap hit middle school and they won't need crayons anymore. 

Anyway we peeled and broke up some of them, we still have lots more, and sorted them by color in a muffin tin I found at a garage sale. I popped it into a 200 degree oven for a few minutes. It didn't take long, maybe five minutes, to melt them all. 


I had tons of old brushes that I let the kids use to paint with the melted wax. A few boxes out of the recycling bin worked perfectly! Yahoo enjoyed following the circle imprints from a box that held soup cans. It looks very Kandinsky like doesn't it? 




I just love the texture that Yahoo came up with!! 


We did have to remelt the wax a couple of times but it remelted fairly quickly. And it kept Yahoo busy at least for about an hour!! 


I looked at the weather forecast for this week and it doesn't look like the rain is going away any time soon so I better start looking for some new indoor ideas! 




Friday, May 15, 2015

Just about settled.

It's been seven days now since we've arrived at the new house. The kids and I left SW Kansas on Saturday morning and by the time we arrived the moving van was gone. And it was time to unpack. It was a bit hairy and stressful for a bit but practically everything is in it's place except for all my photos and paintings. The garage is a bit of a mess too but that's not my department. 

The last few weeks have left me feeling anxious and nervous but those feelings have quickly subsided. DR and I have meshed together fairly well this week after six months of living apart. I sure am sleeping better now that my bed isn't empty! 

The biggest adjustment we've probably all had to make is the change in climate. Of the seven days we've been here it's rained every day but one. Everything is so very green and there are flowers everywhere....it's a bit of an assault on the senses after 5 years in SW Kansas. Even the wet smells of grass and earth seem almost intoxicating. 


It's been so wet in fact that we had to go buy rain boots for the kids so they had something to play in the woods with. (More on that later.) In SW Kansas I never even had to buy them winter boots. A SW Kansas winter is a dry winter. You always hear about the dry heat but a dry winter is different too. It may get cold in SW Kansas but it's the humidity in winter that will drive that cold to your bones like here in the east. I've felt like I've gone through three seasons in one day just because the way humidity effects my body. I didn't think I'd ever have to get used to humidity again!! 



Across the street from our house is a lake that the kids have thoroughly enjoyed playing in. Wading and skipping rocks and tromping through mud. I haven't done this much laundry in ages. Yip, Yap and Yahoo are constantly stripping off wet clothes. I won't complain though because they are outside!! 


This little lake is a gem where you can fish and has a 1 1/3 mile walking path around the lake. On Mother's Day evening we all went for a walk here and ended up getting thoroughly soaked by the rain. The boys, who were almost 6 years old when we moved away from Illinois, were happy as clams that they were in the rain. Yahoo however was not impressed. She was only 1 1/2 years old when we moved to SW Kansas so she know nothing but a climate of severe drought. She HATED walking in the rain. It was almost comical how much she complained!! 


Besides the house I think we have made a good start into settling into the community. We signed up for the summer reading program at the town library. Yip and Yahoo are in baseball this summer and Yap is signed up for golf camp. I'm trying to spread the word about The Roving Brush and hoping to get a couple painting parties scheduled for summer time. We've met a few of the neighbors and have become a familiar face already at the local Orscheln Farm Store. 

I'm excited for the summer. I think it will be a good one but I am a little bit homesick for SW Kansas. 
I miss you Sue, Connie, Angie, Cassandra. Montezuma will always hold a special place in my heart! 



Sunday, May 3, 2015

It's down to one hand now and living in limbo.

 

We are down to five days till the big moving day!! 
I'm excited...I'm nervous....
I'm emotional....I'm ecstatic.....
I want to see everyone before I leave....I don't want to see anyone.....
It's bitter....It's sweet.....
This is home....but it's not.

Our moving day will also mark SIX months since DR left for Kansas City and his new job. After living in a hotel for five months and a new house with no furniture for a month he's most excited about having a couch. I'm mostly excited about not living in limbo anymore. 

There gets to a point in the moving process when you are just there. You can't plan much for the near future. You stop grocery shopping because you don't want to buy something you'll just throw away. Needless to say I expect us to be eating some odd combinations of food this week. You stop reading the newspaper or paying much attention to what's happening in the community because you won't be here to enjoy it. 

A lot of people imagine that I've been super busy these last few weeks but the truth is life has been the polar opposite of busy. I'm not packing anything. The moving guys get to do that Wednesday and Thursday and even then they won't let me help. I went through the house months ago getting rid of stuff so I don't really have anything to sort through. We sold a trailer and a mower. We got rid of scrap wood in the garage. 

Tomorrow I'll pack bags for the kids and I to live out of when everything is on the truck. Tuesday I'll take all the photos off the walls and try to consolidate items for easier packing. Thursday and Friday I'll eat pizza at the school with my kids and their classes. 

But that's about it. My "to do" list is pretty short. 

Living in LIMBO. It's a strange feeling.