A Stolen Moment…Or Two or Three

Olivia is going through some changes and we are currently trying to figure out how to solve our sleep dilemma. Trying to figure out if we need to cut naps out all together or start napping earlier or only allowing the angel here to take a shorter nap a her regularly scheduled time. Earlier this week, the twins were hanging out after school with their daddy so they weren’t home at their normal time. It also happened to be the day that Olivia skipped her nap. I turned on Frozen for her around 4 PM and went about my business of folding and putting clothes away. After a few minutes I noticed that I no longer heard her little voice chirping away so I went to investigate and this is what I found

So precious, this sight was. Even though at 1st I panicked because it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon and I could only imagine how this was going to interfere with bedtime. But being the good paparazzi mother that I am I ran for the camera before I ran to wake her up.

Oh Rats!!!

Olivia can be a complainer, especially when things don’t go her way. But then have you ever known of a 2 1/2 year old girl that isn’t? Girls tend to be more dramatic and emotional, that’s all. But Olivia, oh this child!! Someone once quoted Shakespeare when referring to her saying “Though she be but little she is fierce” and there has never been a more perfect sentence spoken about this precious child of mine. Another sentence that holds true to her is “When dealing with her while she is with out the proper amount of sleep, take 3 steps slowly back and find the quickest escape route possible!” Bless her :) Olivia can scream and holler at the drop of a hat and while Audrey takes the 3 steps back, James doesn’t heed that advice and he stands up to her which can lead to some serious shouting matches. J and O are cut from the same cloth though so it’s tough to avoid these types of situations. Their saving grace in all of this though is their cuteness. James can flash a smile that melts your heart in an instant (or say something that makes your head spin) and Olivia is intone with all of her toddler cuteness. And she has an abundance of it. We want to mash her even when she’s screaming at you (most of the time) or when she gets put out. For instance, she was wanting to go somewhere the other day and we said, no, that we were going home and she came back with “Oh rats!!” She really shouldn’t be allowed to be so cute. And yesterday she came in the kitchen door all in a huff about something not going her way and kicked her shoes off and one landed in the the broom closet 2 feet away. Haha. The picure below is the shoe that didn’t get tossed and the items she discarded in her huff.

Any way, we woke up this morning and even though it was foggy, cold and raining outside, the day looked the brightest that it has since we, well, I can’t remember since when. To make a long and complicated story short, the Lord gave us peace about the decisions we were facing and we’ve decided to stay where we are and move forward with some other prospects concerning the house we are trying to sell. Our “problems” are not solved but when the Lord settles your heart and mind about things it can feel like they are. And that’s worth more than anything. I can finally start to seriously un pack and make this little house our permanent dwelling place for the foreseeable future. I cannot find the words to adequately describe how that makes us feel other than peaceful. But I guess that’s a pretty understandable word. If you’ve ever felt the peace of God come upon you in a trying situation than you know what I mean.

Life is a series of problems...

‘Life is a series of problems that we must solve – one then the next then the next until we die’. – I sit here surrounded by boxes and complete silence. Olivia is asleep and the only noise I can hear is the occasional vehicle that passes by on this quite country road. And my wind chimes. The ones that a sweet couple sent to me when we first moved down here and have accompanied me through 3 moves now. I love them. My sister doesn’t. They remind her of Tropical Storm Faye that passed through here about 6 years ago. Her and her kids got stuck down here with us (she was teaching a class in Tallahassee) during that event and we spent 2 horrible, hot and sleepless nights listening to those wind chimes. It still baffles me why in the world I didn’t take those things DOWN during that time. Haha!

I’ve hesitated today wether to blog about this or not but I figured why not? Pretty sure my 3 devoted followers already know and those who occasionally stop by might feel inclined to pray for our situation. Curious now, aren’t ya?! Ok, well long, long story short we moved into our ”new” house on Monday of this week only to find out later that day that the people who are “buying” our “old” house hit a major roadblock and have had to go another way to try and get the financing that they need. What does this mean? It means that there is a good chance these people won’t be able to buy our home and we will be faced with the decision to pack up and move back until we can find a buyer or stay here and wait it out.

It was quite a large pill to swallow and while it’s finally found it’s way down, we are still a little on edge simply because instead of having the finality of knowing this is it, we will be here for a good long while we are looking around thinking “ok, what should I un-pack?” Over these last few days I’ve unpacked a good portion of the kitchen because the last thing I could bare to do was eat another meal from a restaurant. I don’t care if I have to pack it all back up in 30 days or not. Our meals for the next month will be coming from my kitchen!! I’ve picked a spot for storing boxes that I know we can live with out for the next month so we aren’t tripping over anything any more. The kids rooms are comfy and cozy for them and  I’ve got the bathrooms squared away so that no one is looking for a toothbrush or hair brush. So, basically, the essentials that will make it feel like we are “home” instead of just camping out. Which we had our belly full of over the last few weeks. We also had our belly full of no family time and we are definitely making up for lost moments on that end. As soon as the kids come home from school we go outside and other than homework and supper, we stay out there until dark.

The Lord is still good and his mercy endureth forever. He’s protected us from disaster. Even though our current situation isn’t ideal and is certainly not what we were expecting and while it does give us our moments of downtroddenness (lol, i don’t’ know if that is exactly a word!) at least we don’t find our selves paying two mortgages. We can get out of this rental if we decide to and just go back and wait it out. And as my daddy has been saying ever since we put our house on the market almost a year ago, if we have to be “stuck” in a house, it’s a pretty nice house to be “stuck” in!

In the meantime, I am on vacation. I mean it. I’ll pay the bills and sweep a floor and wash a dish and cook a meal but other than that, I’m on vacation. We are spending the spring in our country home and intend on squeezing every minute of fun out of the days as we can. Just in case we have to go back :) And let me assure you, the giggles and squeals that the one pictured above and the 2 pictured below deliver us on a daily basis certainly puts a smile on our faces and makes the time easier to pass!!

Truth be told

Truth be told, I should not be sitting here at the computer blogging, face booking or editing pictures. I should be getting with it cause even though the house is empty of furniture, the kitchen is all packed up and two of the bathrooms have been spit shined, oh my gosh there’s still so much left to do!! You really do not know how much you have until it’s time to move it all out. With each new room I get cleared out it seems that 2 more keep getting added on. We took a huge leap of faith this weekend and moved the bulk of our belongings over to the other house to sit there and wait on us. We are still waiting on a closing date as it seems this lender doesn’t know her way out of a hole in the ground and it’s getting rather nerve racking! We are camping out on mattresses on the floor, have a tiny dorm room refrigerator in the kitchen and two chairs in the living room. I am sick and tired of eating out and even more tired of not being able to pay more attention to my children. I’m not complaining, I’m really not! I’m just sayin!

Any who, I had my camera out for a few minutes Friday evening to get one last pic of the kids out on the sidewalk, a place where we have spent many a evening riding bikes and coloring with chalk and then on Saturday to try and document a little of our move. I got to the point today where I feel like there’s so much to do, I don’t know what to do next so I decided I’d give myself a little “therapy” and blog so I could go through my pictures.  The kids are adapting to our hectic life rather well. They enjoy eating on the floor in front of the t.v. and hearing their voices echo through out this massive house but I am more than ready to get back to our “normal” lives. Please, if you have the mind, say a prayer for all of us involved that this lender gets their act together, sets a firm closing date and that that date is this Thursday, the 6th!! We are ready to start over!!!