Growth in the Chaos

Where have we been?  Are we still alive?!

We have been here, and yes we are alive.  But you haven't heard from us because our lives are CRAAZZZYYYYY.  And this is no exaggeration.

Why should I update the blog when I could be sleeping?  Why should I update the blog when I could be packing?  Why should I update the blog when I could be stealing precious moments to take a shower, eat some ice cream and watch a little TV before I gratefully fall asleep?  Moms, we need to get what we need when we can get it, right?

This is the state of affairs at the moment:

So it looks like we will be moving July 4th weekend.  I kinda panic every time I say that because I look around and there is still so much packing to be done.  We are certainly making progress; I would say at this moment we are at least 40% packed.  However, I haven't packed up anything in the dining room (see next paragraph as to why), and we are slowly tackling the basement.  And I am still ignoring all the paperwork in our home office space.  So there is lots of packing, and empty boxes all around.  Anything that is packed gets shipped to a storage room at Tim's church, so our moving day can be less painful.  

At the same time, our house is under seige by contractors.  We needed to fix the huge hole in our ceiling from the plumbing emergency and a couple of spots of water damage from this past winter--cosmetic stuff.  That little bit of work has turned into a ridiculous pain in our collective necks.  There is a corner in our house, the back left corner that runs through our master bedroom down to our dining room, that apparently has been suffering water damage for a really long time.  We didn't know it until the contractors started to take one wall down in order to replace it with drywall--he found major beams rotted out due to water, and moisture that had been trapped in the walls so long that the brick was starting to break down.  So, two significant sections of our walls have been taken down to the bricks, our dining room has been inoperable, we have been eating and using one half of our living room, Tim and I have been kicked out of our bedroom, and there is dust everywhere.  We are ending week two of this and it is nutty.  I have learned to embrace the mess, stop trying to clean every bit of dust off the ground and just work around it.  

To further the aggravation: my vacuum cleaner stopped working properly.  It won't suck anything, just blows air around.  What a time to die, right when I need it the MOST!  So, we had to buy a new one.  I am actually waiting for it to be delivered and I'll let you know what I think about it when I get to use it for the first time. 

On the bright side, Evie is excited about moving because our house is broken, and we need a new house--she says.  

We visited the parsonage the other day, and Evie was practically dancing around the house.  She loves it.  I took pics, I'll post them when I get a chance.  She has picked out her room (the biggest one on the second floor) and Isaac's room (the smaller room, of course), and has decided that she wants her room painted pink.  Predictable.

Evie is pretty much potty trained, although we have had trouble the last couple of days.  There has been so much drilling, hammering, and chaos all around that it has been hard for her to listen to her body. So we have had lots of accidents in the past few days.  

Isaac started solid foods this week because he was starting to wake up 2 times through the night just to eat.  He would also lunge at our plates, trying to grab the food off the plate, and everytime he saw our food, he would start to make chewing motions with his mouth.  He loves rice cereal and eats it up with gusto.  Mommy likes it because he is starting to sleep through the night again.  YAY! 

He has also started saying "da da da da".  SO CUTE!  He loves to be vertical and I believe he is trying to walk instead of crawling first. 

So even in the midst of the mess, the transitions, the confusion and the chaos, there is still growth and joy.  Thank God!!  

Pics and more updates to follow soon!