Our house is officially on the market. And now the waiting game begins. I feel like a schoolgirl waiting for that cute guy to take notice in me. Every time the phone rings, I jump. Every time I leave and come home, I race to check the messages. I pace the house, look out the window to see if anyone might be driving by slowly, and keep touching things and tidying up. I’ve got it bad.
We’ve all had our share of meltdowns already. We’re learning to excercise extra grace with each other during this time. Little Miss Sunshine swings from wanting to go to Michigan RIGHT NOW, to not wanting to move at all, to wondering what all we can take with us and if that includes her bed and all the ceiling fans. T-Rex thinks that since we are distracted he can get away with whatever he wants. Both The Narrator and I have run out of patience with everyone at some point and done a little bit of snapping. Like I said – extra grace. We’re all tired and battling sniffles on top of it!
I’ve been fighting off the mommy guilt as my kids have watched much more pre-school tv and played way more Sesame street games online than usual in the past week. I ease my guilt by reminding myself that at the end of this tunnel is a bright, bright light in form of more attention from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins than they could ever imagine. I’ve also tried to think a bit outside the box for them with special things. Yesterday while I was tackling a mountain of laundry that had piled up, the kids had prepared a pretend picnic lunch on the lanai and invited me to join them. I smiled and said, “How about we have a REAL picnic lunch as soon as I finish folding this laundry?” They were ecstatic and began racing to prepare. They grabbed a pile of pillows and blankets from their rooms and spread them on the lanai and had everything set up by the time I arrived with the most delicious pb&j and sliced apples. We had a lovely lunch enjoying the nice warm breeze. Then yesterday afternoon I printed out these valentines and bought some lollipops and we put them together this morning for their friends. We also have a pajama party planned with some friends this Saturday night. So while we may be working more than usual, I’m also trying to make sure we have some unusual play times.
They continue to work on their lists every day, and I bought a pack of cute buttons for $3.99. They each get to pick one button at the end of each week to wear on their shirts or put on a lanyard they got at Disney. It’s the simple things, really. They can’t wait to pick out their next button this weekend!
And so now we wait. And wait.
Those valentines are so cute! I don’t think I could get away with sending Bug to Awanas with butterflies though. 🙂
We may not be going through a move, but with the deployment, I can relate some to what you are saying – extra grace, extra videos at times just to survive, trying to do extra fun things. One HUGE difference – I don’t have to keep my house company-ready, thank goodness! You sound like you have a really good balance. I pray this time goes quickly and will be over before you know it.
Oh, and I love the button idea!