PICTURES BELOW!!!  (For those of you who don’t like lots of words… :-D)

I thrive in routine.  My children thrive in routine.  When there’s a big change, it takes me (and them) a couple weeks at best to adjust and find my new normal.  Given this past year… I feel like I’ve barely righted myself before I’m turned on my head all over again!

Three months in Illinois with my mother, three months back home after her funeral where I felt I worked the role of “single mother” pretty hard while Josh finished his prelims, then three months in San Diego, and now back, only to move all our belongings to a different (though mold free! and beautiful!) house.

Whew!

Every weekend since we “moved” has been taken up with relocating our stuff to the new place and then finding room for it all.  We threw a lot out.  It was refreshing.  We still have a huge Goodwill pile in our garage, but as I’m left car-less during the day, that may take awhile to get rid of!  Mostly, though, except for pictures, the house is organized and completely unpacked.

This past weekend was our first non-moving weekend and Josh’s mom, sister, and sister’s roommate came to visit! They helped to celebrate my birthday.  It was a blast, and given it was my first birthday since my mom’s death, I welcomed the happy distractions.

After they left on Monday, we started school.  This is new territory for me, teaching two at once, but it seems to be working itself out pretty well.  So far, I can teach Benjamin most of his school while Olivia does handwriting and spelling which doesn’t require much attention.  When his school starts to take longer, I’ll probably throw Math into her morning school too, since she excels in that. They were both ready, eager, and willing to start school, which made it so much fun.

So we’re finding our new Normal.  Again. I have so many times throughout the day where I just turn in circles trying to figure out what I should be doing and when.  I’m such a “feeler”, not so much a “planner”.  I feel my day out, and when I find something that works, I keep with it.  Sometimes I wish I would just sit down and schedule out my day.  Maybe soon I’ll have a good enough feeling for what I’m doing that I can attempt something like that. 🙂

I also need to get my camera fixed!  It’s been illegally long since I’ve posted a picture on here of my gorgeous children.  I have some on my phone.  I suppose I could use those to hold you over.

Here’s Levi at our apartment in San Diego.  He got innovative trying to get water from the fountain on his own.

Here’s Lucy in San Diego.  The big city life changed her.

Here’s Levi again.  Proof of the mess he presents me with At. Every. Meal.

Here are all three of my kids plus two of their third cousins at the Air and Space Museum in San Diego.  They loved the helicopter.

We went for a walk just about every day in San Diego.  Here’s the San Diego River, which we had to cross to get to Target.  And yes, those are two umbrella strollers connected together.  It was the best purchase I made all summer.

This was one of our last days at the San Diego apartment.  That was the life. 😉

Here’s Levi in his shorty wetsuit!  The Pacific ocean is CO-OO-OLD, people.  (At least where we were.) Wetsuits were crucial.

Levi, Benjamin, and Olivia with their Great-Oma (Josh’s grandma)!  This was their first ice cream cone, too.  I’m the mean mom who makes them get their ice cream in bowls because it’s neater.  🙂  That’s what grandmas are for!

Here’s Lucy.  Benjamin wouldn’t get in his seat, so we demoted him.  And promoted Lucy.

Here’s Olivia with her lose bottom tooth!  It has since fallen out, but apparently I haven’t gotten those pictures off my phone yet.  Sorry!

This was our first lunch at the new house.  The kids love the back porch.  I love not having to clean up a lunch mess off our carpeted dining room floor. 😀 Win/Win!

Well that’s all the pictures for now.  The family wants to go for a walk.

What all have you guys been up to this past summer?  I have NOT been keeping up on your blogs at ALL.  {bows head in shame} Sorry… 🙁