Life is Either a Daring Adventure or Nothing

I think Helen Keller gets credit for this quote. It's also the tag line on one of my favorite blogs Daring Young Mom. Today, it makes me think of my Grammie. You just can't have a photo like this in your album and not blog about it. This is Grammie about two weeks ago at her 95th birthday, sitting with my uncle on the back of his Harley. This ride was planned since her 90th birthday. Unfortunately, my uncle had a slight mishap and broke his leg. Alas, no birthday ride for Grammie.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't characterize her as adventurous, yet she definitely made some courageous choices in her long life. After all, she raised FOUR boys and lived to tell about it.

My sense of adventure ebbs and flows these days. I always feel particularly brave and adventurous on the front end of a move. The adrenaline rush of packing it all up and moving to a new place, the excitement of exploring a new city, the absolute delight in finding Chick-fil-a and Super Target in the same parking lot. These are all the up sides to relocation. But now we begin week 3 and reality starts to set in. I don't really know anyone here, apart from Steve's cousins and one or two others. I'm a long way from my own family and the part of the country I call "home". Leaving the house was a challenge before we moved, now it is just downright miserable. Putting multiple children into car seats in a very hot car, relying on GPS to get where we need to go, completing the errand, repeating said car seat procedure...coming home totally exhausted. Ugh.

Sometimes it is easier to just stay home and fuel my hunger for social interaction through Facebook.

But then I think of my Grammie, counting her blessings on her birthday. Listening to her talk about the phone calls she received, some of them from friends she has known since the first grade. Those friendships didn't develop from hiding in her house. And she certainly didn't have Facebook or Twitter. I guess what I'm trying to say is that she inspires me, even at 95, to be just a little more daring. Because I don't want to miss out. I don't want my children to miss out because I was too tired, too shy, too overwhelmed to help them get out and build relationships.

After all, they are boys and life should be a daring adventure.

Mister Flexible

Is it simply the role of the third child to just go with the flow? Eli has amazed us with his mellow demeanor. Hotels, pack 'n plays, airplanes, rental cars, teething while moving across the country...does anything phase this kid? He is log rolling and 'army crawling' on the floor these days, whatever it takes to get where he wants to go. I see a little gleam in his eye sometimes, maybe this mellow thing is temporary until he goes mobile. He is a big fan of the swing in the backyard and his brothers love to push him. They are still proceeding with caution around him. I suppose that's probably temporary, too.

Southern Livin'

Mr. First Grade

It's only day 2 but Luke seems to love his new class. He announced at dinner that he can't wait to go back to school tomorrow. I hope this trend continues.
Andy has a love-hate relationship with the play structure. It's all fun and games until somebody plants a cicada at the top of the slide. Then he screams bloody murder. He is terrified of bugs and there are plenty of unfamiliar critters crawling around here. He can't say 'cicada' but walks around telling me that he does NOT like picadoes.

Our new kitchen, with stuff on every square inch of counter space. If an object doesn't have a home, we just park it on the counter.

Our main hang out these days, complete with a tower of boxes. The boys are happy to have their own space again. Hotel living was fun but a bit too cozy. This place has a perfect "track" for racing cars, flying planes or going to their separate corners to build Lego creations. Kids are so resilient.

The back yard is great. Hopefully when the weather cools off we can actually enjoy it. A slow-moving freight train goes by almost every day. The boys run and jump on the couch to check it out. It doesn't blow the whistle and never goes by at night, so it isn't as disruptive as I expected. Now the thunder and lightning is proving to be an issue. It scares the boys and even the dog, especially in the middle of the night. Luke saw the weather forecast last night and they were discussing hurricane season and the storms brewing in the Atlantic. He was very concerned. He came into our room at 5:30 this morning and one of his first questions was whether or not the hurricane would come today. Poor thing. He can put all his belongings in boxes, move across the country and change schools, yet it is a tropical storm that will be his undoing.

Our New Home Sweet Home

12 days, 3 hotels in 3 different states and 3,000 miles later, we finally have a place to call our own. We rented this house sight unseen, with the exception of a walk through by a family member and a few pictures on line. Although it's only day 4, so far we are pretty content. A slow-moving freight train goes by the back fence about twice a day. The boys think that is just great because it looks like Brewster from Chuggington on the Disney channel. There were a lot of tears at bed time because we couldn't find a certain boy's music box. I finally found it buried in a box in Eli's room and last night was tear-free.

Our dryer won't work and I can't find the box that holds my coffee pot, but all things considered, I think we can call this move a success.