Raising Roots

Wow… 6 months since my last post. That’s not good!! Well, one of my goals for the new year was to let this site bloom a bit, so here goes!!

Happy New Year!! Doing Christmas and other Holiday celebrations in a postage stamp sized apartment is a challenge, but we made it work, I think.  We found a tall skinny charlie brown tree that fit perfectly into the space we made for it. Decorated only with ornaments made by my friends and loved ones from this and past years, it was perfect. I think I can get rid of about half the ornaments we own now. I adore my tree filled with love!!

The other fun thing we did this year, keeping our simplifying goals in mind, was to attempt Christmas with no wrapping paper. We did pretty well. Last year, after Christmas, I went to the local fabric store and bought holiday fabric at about 70% off.  I cut various sizes, and hemmed edges and made a few different sized bags, added some ribbon (or, some sparkly yarn) and had lovely, reusable wrappings for our gifts! I bought some more fabric this year, to add some variety, and because some was given away with the gifts. It made one small step toward being kind to the earth, since we won’t need to buy wrapping paper for the holidays again!  You’ll notice in the picture, there is some starry tissue paper Roo wrapped some gifts with at the local Waldorf school’s Winter Faire, and Supergeek donated some $$ at a wrapping stand while he was shopping that goes to a school in Ghana. I think about 90% of our gifts were in fabric this year. Makes us feel pretty good.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here.  again.  I’ve been spending my computer time doing other things lately, mostly wasting time, which I find frustrating.  I had an epiphany the other day while weeding at my CSA with the high school kids who work there.  They were talking to each other about social media, like Facebook and Twitter, and how their mothers spent so much time playing games like Angry Birds and Words with Friends, how people who post all the time on Facebook drive them crazy (because no one really cares that much)  and Twitter is ridiculous.  They also talked about their younger siblings who spend tons of time on various gaming devices, and how they never go outside, and how their children will never do that… well, maybe…

It made me think about how I use my computer time.  How I have SO many “friends” on Facebook, who I never really see, haven’t talked to face to face in years… and how many friend requests I accepted because I felt I had to.  I do have people in groups, and a few of those groups have more security features than others…  but I would much rather spend time visiting my friends, laughing and chatting with them, being able to give a hug, see a smile, touch their arms.

So here’s my hope.  I hope that I can spend more time here, posting the fun things we are doing this summer.  I hope that my true friends will read it, comment, and participate.  I hope I can stick with it.   I have so much to share with this space!!

We are no longer homeowners!!  Tuesday we closed the sale on our house, the house we lived in, brought Roo home to, worked on, changed.  The new owners are wonderful and we’re happy to leave our wonderful neighbors with a nice family.  We hope to own again in the next year, but for now we are enjoying the coziness of our apartment.  It’s still full of boxes and things aren’t ready to share yet… but I’m working today on getting boxes empty and finding the perfect place for everything.  I think I need more baskets though!!

{I’m going to start posting a list of things that are good in my life on Tuesdays.  I used to do this daily on a mothering site I’m part of, and was recently reminded of how important for the soul it is to focus on the good}

1) The Apartment is coming together nicely, there’s more unpacking to do, and already Roo’s room looks like all her storage units barfed everywhere, but we’re happy here.

2) I drove Roo to school today (I do that every day) and the total trip for me was less than 15 mins.  In the house it took an hour for me to do that whole trip. Since I do that trip twice a day, that’s an hour and a half I’ve gained back into my day! (maybe I’ll write here more!!)

3) The cat, who was freaked out for the first 48 hours of living here, has finally calmed down enough to not drive me batty.  We actually slept all night without her coming to tell us about something she discovered during her late night wanderings.  Very Nice.

4) I get to have lunch today with a very good friend who will very soon be a new mama, I missed her baby shower, and plan to make up for it today when I see her!!

5) As I stare around the living/dining area of the apartment, I see my craft cabinet and my piano, my sweet kitty, and boxes of treasures waiting to be unpacked.  I realize that our life is so blessed, and even if we are a little crazy for going on this journey to a simpler life, it’s very much the right thing for us to be doing.

What’s your Good News?

We moved this weekend.  The Plan is working full force.  Our dream of downsizing, being closer to Roo’s school and the community there… we’re there, sort of.  Our 4 bedroom house with a basement is now a 2 bedroom apartment with no extra storage (although we are renting a storage unit and utilizing my dad’s basement!). We are so lucky to have good friends who spent Saturday loading the truck and unloading it again, and other friends who took Roo for the afternoon and superfun play with old buddies.  It’s been a long time of dreaming, it seems a little unreal that we’re actually here.  Pics to come soon.  I’m just wondering how crazy we are.

The housing market amazes me.  It’s full of surprises!  One house sold in a month, 2 others were on the market for more than 6 months, and one down the stereo has been for sale for nearly 2 years.

2 weeks ago another neighbor’s house went on the market. Amazingly, in a week they had 4 offers!  Our wonderful realtor contacted the seller’s realtor and found the names of the realtors that didn’t get that house, and she contacted them all.  So, about 2 weeks before we were actually ready to list our house, we had 2 showings.  The first family wasn’t crazy about how we moved walls, but the second family LOVED our house!! Especially the beautiful mural a friend did for Roo before she was born.  So now we are under contract, and the workers are finishing the painting, new front door and the few other little things we were planning on doing.  We are moving in 9 days!!!  We’re going to rent a tiny apartment for at least 6 months.  I’m so excited to be downsizing, and yet so sad to be leaving this house that we’ve worked so hard on.

Today I am waiting.

Waiting for my dad to come out of recovery. His back surgery was today, and everything went well.  I waited for that to be over too.

Waiting to hear about job changes

Waiting to hear about life changes

Waiting to make those changes

Waiting to wait

Waiting is hard.

Waiting is worth it.

Oooh.. look! I got poetic today!!!

I’ve been absent a while, again, and am trying still to figure out my purpose for blogging here… I think I need two or three different onesJ  Anyway  I need to write this all down, and see where we are in a few months, or a year.

This is going to be the year of change.  We’re getting ready to sell our 4 bedroom house and downsize.  We don’t know where we’re going. We know we’re going to be nearby, but Supergeek is ready for a career change, and has applied to teach at Roo’s school.  If the planets align perfectly, he’ll get a job there, and we’ll move (gasp) on to the school campus (2 bedroom apartment on the boys dorm is possible—ACK). We’re very excited about this possible opportunity to live without so much stuff, without so much wasted space, more simply. It’s a little scary, but when I think about it, I feel so calm and expectant, so I’m fairly certain it’s the right thing to do.  If the job isn’t the right thing, then he’s still going to switch companies, and we’ll buy a smaller house.  We’ve been having fun looking at little 3 bedroom ranchers, and dreaming of living on a single level, using all the rooms in the house.  In our current house we only use about half the house.  There are 2 bedrooms that are just full of junk, and a room downstairs that currently is housing everything I’m consigning in April.  It’s amazing the amount of junk we’ve accumulated in the last 11 years of living here, most of it since Roo was born 8 years ago.  It stresses me out, and I’m so ready to live somewhere where we don’t feel the need to fill empty space with crap.

So that’s where we are now.  At the edge of a few cliffs, ready to take the plunge, hoping the fall isn’t too far, or that the parachute works, or something.

4 days old, less than 6 lbs!!

Roo and I went to the local Children’s Museum today.  It was her request “Please Mama, Can we go there?  I LOVE it there!”   It’s really geared more towards the 3-6 set, even younger, but Roo still had a wonderful, fantastic time.  2 weeks ago she turned 8.   8!!!!  I’m having trouble dealing with the fact that my little tiny baby is now 8, reading everything we put in front of her (and yes, I have to be mindful of what I’m reading on the ‘puter now, so she doesn’t see something I’d rather shield her from for a few more years).  She’s independent to a fault, and an absolute joy to have around.

These last few weeks we’ve been getting lots of winter weather, it’s January, who would’ve guessed? I’ve been enjoying having my girlie around, seeing her play with the neighbors, watching her stand on her head as she reads.  Seeing her hide the title (”Winnie the Pooh” ) of the book she’s reading because it’s a baby book, but she’s reading it anyway.  Doing our fun winter things, smore’s, snow ice cream, maple syrup candy, and just enjoying the outside together is wonderful.

one of many favorite reading positions

She makes her own breakfast sometimes, but still likes me to do it.  She washes her own hair, but will have to again tomorrow because tonight she just pretended and hoped Mama wouldn’t notice.  She can work the tv remote to navigate between different components when BeeMa is hanging out (because she’s too big to have a babysitter). But she won’t talk on the phone to people, because it’s too Grown Up a thing to do.  She still snuggles in the morning, and needs her thumb a little at night.

age 3, about the age of all the other kids today

And when we were at the children’s museum today, she was twice as tall as all the other children… and we had a blast.

My big 8yo!!!

another post!!   I figure, habits take time to form, so if I post every night, that might help…

I was thinking about one small change, the program I hoped to participate in last year, and for some small tiny part I did. My goal was to bring in more house plants… we got a few more african violets, and a spider plant.  This past Holiday we got a bunch of cyclamen and poinsettias, but most of those are done… I know I can keep cyclamen, but they’re much pickier about water than the violets and spider plant… and with the changes we’re planning on making, keeping up with some plants isn’t going to happen… once we’re in a new space… then we’ll get some plants.

Another small change we made last year was to go to Quaker Meeting each week.  For the most part we’ve kept up with that, and have found a wonderful community that we are excited to be a part of.

Speaking of community, We also joined a community choir, and have made some great friends.  We feel so welcomed by these people and it warms our hearts to be part of such a great group.  Since we both sing in this group, we bring Roo with us, and there are a few kids and they go upstairs and watch a movie with the teenage son of the people who run the choir.  It’s great… super… love it.

Getting ready for a super busy week, lots to do, including getting a new driver’s license!!!