Before the Move

So much going on!  Besides our normal wacky life we are preparing to move.  Our current house sold in about 36 hours, can you believe it?  We close on our current house March 13, 2014 and our new house March 21, 2014.  The real stress is keeping the house 'Showroom Ready' till we move with three kids who have no interest in keeping things picked up behind them.  It has been a challenge that I have not been totally successful.  Still the house is better than the normal chaos. 

Yesterday was the kids last basketball games for the Y season.  We are on to Soccer, today is the last day of sign-up so I sent the hubby off to get that errand done (one less on my list). 

We are moving from a house we built, pre-kids, in 2000 that has about 3600 sq/ft which we did not utilize well, down to a house half that size and further out of the city.  It has been a major under taking, unfettering ourselves of useless clutter, out grown items and just unused 'must haves' that we never needed.  After 2 garage sales, (did I mention I HATE, doing garage sales) 4+ garbage piles for garbage collection day, countless truckloads to GoodWill and other charity drop sites things are getting near a controllable, if not embarrassing, level of excess.  It has also been enlightening how light and free I feel not having to spend so much time, worry and money on the upkeep of so much STUFF!  Not one thing we rid ourselves of has been missed.  The interesting thing is when we started the dig the ladies from my church started a bible study on Jen Hatmaker's book "7: An Experimental Mutiny of Excess". It was as if God was reinforcing the path he has set us on, I felt reaffirmed. 

We still have so much to do.  We have a house full of 'things' and there has been a POD sitting in our driveway for nearly a month reminding me that we have so much more that we do not need.  I must admit half of the POD is my sewing and craft room that may need to be reevaluated and the other half would be my husband's inheritance.  Antiques and collections that was built over 2 lifetimes that he feels responsible for, and I feel stress over.  I love the beautiful collections his parents left us but at the same time they provide no useful purpose other than linking us to the past and taking up space.  Figuring out how all our things are going to fit into our smaller home is very exciting.  

The kids will be changing schools next year which means mommy will be doing a little bus route to their old schools from the end of the month till the end of the current school year.  The gym is on the way back to the house so there will be NO excuse for missing a workout.

I really like to bake and try new recipes (I love to eat sweets).  My latest try will be sour dough bread.  I started a SD starter yesterday, I hope I can remember to feed it regularly....*smile*.