We are in!

I have been MIA because we have been moving. We are finally in our new house. Almost all the boxes are unpacked and we are settling in. The house is great. It has the greatest bathtub EVER. Its huge, so big I am pretty sure I could bring in a floaty or 2. The kids were great through the move helping clean and carry boxes. In someways having 7 kids makes big things easier, yard work, moving...... Its nice to have a place to set roots. We are going to be putting in a big garden in the back and starting a composting bin. Some of our children have trouble with transitions, even when moving within the same town. So this past week my days have been filled with lots of limit testing. I am though not gifted in decorating houses, so I have a few boxes left with pictures and things that I wander around the house with and then eventually return it to the box. It will find its place eventually! My favorite room in the house is our new homeschool room. I will post pictures soon!

Looking in the rear view mirror

I tend to view life that way. You know it looks small and distant and you see the familiar stuff you passed along the way. You can't see all the details and like the last sock in the hamper it is forgotten and memories are piled on top. I have lived a bit of the gypsy life the past few years. Well the past 12 years. We have moved almost 8 times in the last 12 years. (I say almost because in 3 weeks we will be making our 8th move). We have moved from MA to CT to NH to MA to TX to IL to TX......My original home is in MA (I did live a few years as a child in FL) but most of my growing up years I spent in Massachusetts. Its home and will always be home. I know the towns, the good beaches, where to get REAL ice cream (which doesn't exist in TX), the accents......... Living in Texas has awesome perks, the people are super kind, the ice doesn't stick to the roads for too long and the prices down here are a LOT lower :) Yet some days like today while I was watching coverage of some storms up in New England, I feel homesick. Homesick to understand by town name whats going on. Memories of working here, or living there. Where I met Randy, where we took Alex. I miss having lots of family around to visit and celebrate with. But then I also have to remind myself when we look back in the rear view mirror a lot of stuff is lost. For one I hated the winter. I like the snowstorm near Christmas, but other then that I feared driving in all that! The cost of living was so high Randy often traveled over an hour and for a few years 2 hours, just to get to work each way losing lots of family time. Lastly if I had stayed put and not followed my gypsy life I wouldn't have Caley, Riley, JD, Zeke and Hannah.....So yes I miss the past, but who knows what the future holds. Hopefully this next move is our last for a long long time, perhaps by then I will know my Texas geography better and have a new accent and give the kids a new hometown to look back on someday :) Sidenote...Texas isn't bigger in everything they don't have bigger ice cream cones then Massachusetts!