Getting Ready to Move

I was looking forward to the kids being out of school so that I could get ready to move without having any obligations of being anywhere.  Every day I'm trying to do a hundred things around the house and the kids are playing around me, sometimes even helping in their own way.  But it seems like for every one thing I accomplish, they pull out 5 toys and leave them around the house.  So even though I am getting things done and checking them off my list(s), it looks like nothing is getting done.  Today I finally cleaned up all the toys and what a difference it makes.

We are 4 days, 1 birthday party, 2 play dates, 1 dinner get together, 1 church picnic and a few dozen to-do list items away from the day the packers arrive.  (And then I have new to-do lists of what to do while they're here.) Plus we need to pack/segregate the items we are bringing in the car with us.  I have tried to find a balance of me working around the house and taking the kids to do fun things but they are getting a little cranky.  And I am ready to be done getting ready!

I'm trying to prioritize items by what I really need to do versus what the really organized, somewhat OCD me wants to get done.  When I get ready to go on vacation, I have to have my house really clean before I can leave it.  I love coming home to a clean house.  So getting ready to move out of a house...it's even worse.  I'm trying to leave it clean for the renters because I've realized that my cleaning standards are pretty high and I've worked too hard the past few months to then pay cleaners to do only a few extra things.  It's the "I-own-a-house" version of a room inspection at Norwich.

We have done some fun things though -  a day at the beach for an air show and the Blue Angels, a morning in downtown Norfolk to see the parade of ships, Casey's Little Gym show, and playing with neighbors and friends.

Jack the Engineer

On Wednesday, Jack decided that he was going to get some work done!  I took a wee bit of an afternoon nap and when I next saw Jack, he was dressed liked this...

He came over to me with a piece of construction paper and showed me his plans.  It was very impressive.  He drew some parts and added arrows to show how they went together.  Then he had numbers to indicate how many of each part was needed.  I think he might be an engineer some day. (I tried to scan it but the purple construction paper is not coming through well.  I wonder if he thought purple looked more like a real blueprint.)

Later on, he added more to his design, including a compass rose.  Then he started explaining the details to me but I'm still not sure I understand.  He's building a castle and I believe the castle is for a mouse.  But he's worried about ants getting into the castle so he's created some kind of hole into which the ants will fall.  He also wants the roof to be strong so he said, "I'm probably going to use some stainless steel on the roof Mommy.  Then it will be strong enough."

He's a little upset that he doesn't have a toy saw and is adding that to list of things he'd like to get.  He also  wanted to know if he could get a toy ladder, like the step ladder we have in the garage.  I told him that the toy manufacturers probably think that's a little dangerous for kids.  He then decided to make one.  He had a couple of dowels and wanted to know what he could use for steps.  I pointed him towards the popsicle sticks.

Then a lot of thought and effort went into what would be the best way to construct the ladder.  He really thought he was going to be able to stand on it when he was done.  Initially he thought tape was the way to go.  But he couldn't find the tape.  He also thought about nails but I think he realized that was beyond his abilities.  He finally settled on some Tacky glue.  It's still a work in progress but the top and bottom rungs are glued on and he'd like to add something to make it stand on it's own like a real step ladder.

He called it a day early but it was certainly a good day's work.