Our New Digs!

I promised pics, and I finally had time to follow through on that!  (That's because Flanna's sleeping late today--a small miracle!)  

Annnnyway.  Here's our cute new house!

I'm going to paint the bedrooms this weekend if all goes as planned!  The lime green is cute but just doesn't match our stuff. 

the master bedroom

Great tile, huh?

The living room

The kitchen.

I'm considering these all the "before" photos, and hopefully the "after" photos will be much more inviting!  We move into the house in about a week or so.  Those of you who live close by, please come visit!

What project are you starting?  I love painting a room, how the results are so immediate and satisfying!

Forget not the Beauty of the In-Between

Moving is such hard work!  But we did it--we made it to Georgia, and we unloaded our stuff!  We're storing our furniture at a friends's house and are staying with family for the summer while we house-hunt.  So, at least for a few weeks, we're done with lugging heavy boxes around, yay!

This morning, I got up early and took the dogs outside for a bit, and listening to the birds chattering in the woods, I was just transported right back to my childhood here in Georgia--how I'd wake up with windows open to a slight breeze, sun streaming through, and the busy sounds of the forest floating in.  

It's so nice to be back home.  And the best part is all the time we're getting to spend with family and good friends.  I know we'll look back on this transition summer--living with family, looking for a home of our own-- one day and will treasure the closeness we got to have with our family.   Once we have our own place, we'll have to plan times to see them once more, and the little everyday moments of shared experience won't be so common.

This whole time we've been moving, this little quote keeps popping up in my head, (from my favorite song of all time, which is also the inspiration for my blog title)

"I want to be champion of evening, to forget not the beauty of the in-between."

Forget not the beauty of the in-between.

I often try to rush things, to get to the next step, to keep growing and accomplishing and getting things settled and determined and decided.  But sometimes, there is also beauty in the in-between.  



What transition are you appreciating (or maybe not so much appreciating yet?) right now?  A new baby, recovery from surgery, moving, traveling, a new job?  Let the in-between be just that, and enjoy it!

Everything is Cuter with a 4 Year Old

Everything is cuter when you're four.  Your tiny socks.  Your sparkly shoes.  Your skirt that can double as a tutu when you dress up.

And yes, even your moving boxes.  I mean, how cute is that?


Tomorrow's the big day that we load everything up!   The movers are coming to help us load at 9:30.  I hope we'll be ready!  Wish us luck!

It's Hard to Say Goodbye

All the SLPs in our school district had a meeting and end-of-the-year gathering yesterday, and it was just so wonderful to get to spend some time as a whole group.   This group of ladies is full of kind, sweet, funny, creative, ambitious, thoughtful, reflective therapists who really care about the children they serve.  I've been so lucky to be a part of their team.  They gave me a sweet goodbye plant with a card that said, "It's easier to say "She sells seashells by the seashore" 5 times fast, than to say "Goodbye."--so appropriate I wondered if the card was published by ASHA (the national association of SLPs)!  (But it wasn't! Someone just found the perfect card!)

AND, to top it all off, there was wonderful food!  I brought these cute tomato/basil kabobs (with basil from the garden!) that my friend Rachel introduced me to years ago.  They were a hit!

So, there's another thing I'm going to miss.  My wonderful coworkers (and their wonderful potluck food!).  My next job has a lot to live up to!

me with Ruth, my fellow Ephesus Speechie 

The Whole CHCCS SLP Gang

What's your favorite thing about your job?

A Clean Room! Quick, take a picture!

Flanna with her blanket from Grammie

I was just thinking today that we are going to need to start packing our apartment up soon.  Which makes me sad.  There are so many things I love about this place.  Its location.  Its natural light. Its storage space.  It's low rent.  Hah. 

Anyway, here's a peek at Flanna's room one of those rare days when it was clean.  So cute!

What's one thing in/about your home that makes you happy?

Spending the Night! and News!

It seems like forever since I last posted!  Sorry to be on an unannounced hiatus last week!  I got super busy with work, Spanish class, and trying to cook/clean/have it all.  :)  So, I'm going to try to catch you up on our happenings in one fell swoop.  You may need to take notes...we've been busy!

Flanna spent the night with her sweet friend Lucy last week.  She was soooo excited to go!  She kept saying, "I'm going to Lucyyyyyy's!"  She got all dolled up in her brand new hair bows from her Grammie, her bracelet from her Grandma, and a dress with a ruffle down the front.

She did great on her first sleepover that wasn't with family!  When we picked her up the next day, she was thrilled to report how she got to sleep on the top bunk of Lucy's bunk bed, and how she had sooo much fun!

And Robi and I had an evening out on the town!  We took a nice walk, then went to dinner and a movie, and it was so refreshing to have time alone to talk and relax.  This must be what life is like when you live close to family and they can steal your child for the weekend.  I sort of remember what that's like.

Speaking of which,  I have news!!!

My hubby has a new job!  Down south!  Near our family!

We'd been hoping for him to find something here in the Durham area so I could keep this dream job I have right now.  (Seriously, I currently have the best job I'll probably ever have in my whole life.)  But, alas, that was not to be.

The job he found is pretty great, though!  At a fancy schmancy school and teaching super interesting classes.

And did I mention it's near family?  Cause that's pretty huge.

We're very excited!




Where would you choose to live, if you could live anywhere at all?

Murphy's Law

On top of the craziness that is normal moving and unpacking and sorting and organizing, on Thursday, a breaker in our kitchen decided to malfunction. At first, the power just went out when I used the dryer. Annoying, but not completely disastrous.

Then, the breaker decided to flip every time I used the oven or the stove. Yup, that's right, every time I try to, say, cook, in my kitchen, the power goes out. Every time.

Arrrgh.

And the electrician who was supposed to try to squeeze us in on Friday never showed. So it'll be Monday before we can even call him again to see if he can possibly help us out.

Which has made for a really ridiculously frustrating few days.

I've tried to be productive. I've unpacked. I've organized. I've hung photos and art.

But my laundry is piling up. And my microwavable, toaster oven-able, crock-pot-able food ideas (the few appliances that don't immediately blow our kitchen fuse) are all used up.

As is my patience.




What helps you calm down when you're super frustrated?


By the way, the photo above is of this amazing circular kitchen that rotates 180 degrees, designed for really small spaces. I stumbled upon it looking at clever designs for small kitchens, and now I really want one!

Bloom Where You're Planted

Sometimes there are things about our lives that we don't like, but that we just can't change.

For me, that is living so ridiculously far away from our extended family.

Sometimes I get so focused on how much better life would be, how much easier things would be, how wonderful it would be if we just lived near the fam, that I make my current situation into something I'm just bearing.

Get that?

Sometimes I treat my wonderful, amazing, current life, with my kind and devoted husband and my sweet darling girl, as if it's something I have to put up with.

Sigh.

So, I've been telling myself a new phrase for the last few days. It's really rocket science, if I do say so to myself.

"Bloom where you're planted."

I don't think it's cured my homesickness for our family. But it's helping a little.

And where we're planted is a really cool town, actually. Today we visited the public library, took a drawing class, had some amazing mango frozen yogurt at Local Yogurt, checked out the fall schedule of classes at the Little Gym, and found a really neat unfinished furniture store that I fell instantly in love with.

Blooming in progress.




What's something hard about your life that you're learning to accept right now?

By the way, this photo is of Flannery in the garden behind our old house in Athens. See why I miss it so much?

There's Regular Sick, and There's Homesick

This week, I have really felt the tug of homesickness.

As my daughter says sometimes, "I miss the green house." (that's it, our old house back in Athens, in the pics)

Maybe it's just because I've been "regular" sick, and I don't really have a good support system here yet for times when I'm sick and my hubby has a ton of deadlines at work.

Or maybe it's because I'm missing a baby shower this weekend, of a friend back home in GA whose wedding I had to miss because I had just moved. And another friend is about to go into labor at any moment. And I'd love to have been preparing the perfect vegan dish to take to her after the baby comes. But, oh, that's right, she lives states away. And another friend has gone through some trying times this week, and I would've loved to have dragged her out for a fancy coffee and a long chat. But, instead our phone conversation got inadvertently cut off when my cell phone suddenly had no signal, in my own home. And I'm tired, and have been sick, and it would've been a perfect weekend to let Flanna hang out with her grandparents for a few hours while I caught up on the laundry or maybe took a nap. But, yeah, you guessed it, said grandparents are states away. And then I kept meaning to call my sister every day, but then it was suddenly 11 pm every night, and now I haven't talked to her in eons. Seriously, eons.

Hummph.

Homesickness is sometimes worse than regular old sickness.

But, on a positive note, my hubby won an award today for having the best "poster" at a networks conference at Duke. Which is really neat. That boy's a smarty. And it's worth occasional bouts of homesickness to get to see him flourish professionally.

Worth it, but I do still get to say, "Hmmph."




Have you always lived in the same general area, or have you made big moves in your life? How have you juggled maintaining old friendships and making new ones as you've moved through your life?