October 2015 Edition: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Mi Casa Es Su Casa... Es Su Casa.... Es Su Casa...

Things on the housing front are looking a bit brighter. After 8 months of serious searching, 3 different housing contracts signed this year alone, and countless house visits, we think we've got "the one". It's a looooooot cheaper than we were originally going for, but I think that's on the better end of the spectrum of practicality, right? It's not perfect: it's old and it does not have Central Air, it looks dated and needs a little bit of TLC, BUT it has just enough updating done that we can finish the rest DIY-style and make it "our own".

We're happy, but not completely excited yet. This could be because we've gotten this far before and have had some major turn of events happen to nix the whole operation (e.g. Texas house financing, moldy house inspection, and a simple but sure answer to prayer on a house that was reaching the tip-top of our price point.) The house inspection is tomorrow, and barring any unforeseen problems, we will be set to close before the end of June. Wow. It really might be happening this time.

I feel that through all the experiences with this house hunt, I have grown in a way that I may not have otherwise. Financially, we've been in a great position to be home-owners for quite a while now and always knowing that was the hardest thing to reconcile with our situation; there was so much red tape, hidden nightmares, and unanswerable reasons in our previous endeavors. However, now I can take a little more disappointment, drop a few expectations and can find more things to be content with. Timetables are still important to me, but I'm learning that they are not everything and certainly not the most important things. This is a huge shift in perspective for me because I am a very goal-driven, proactive person for the most part. Doing all that you can do just has to be enough sometimes. I cannot control God's path for me; I simply have to swallow my pride and hunker down until the sun starts shining again.

In the meantime it's just nice to sit back and ponder on the clouds, because they never last forever.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

May

This is basically how May has happened so far....

1. Our post-ice skating snack. Turns out Qiana was as good at eating ice as she was at skating on it. In this pic, Ez was plotting against me and my sno-cone since they spilled half of theirs. He subsequently carried out his plan and soon the remaining traces of the sugary treats were only left on the table and his *gulp* white shirt.

2. The First Grade Spanish Immersion classes put on a few plays for the parents the other day. Siena's part was the third little pig, which she rocked! I'm amazed at how much Spanish the other children had learned in just one year.

3. I'm slowly catching on to the fact that my time with the kids all to myself is limited. It's taken long enough for me to figure this out! So we've been doing things a little more impulsively. The kids finally got library cards, we've created sidewalk chalk masterpieces together, gone on bike rides and walks, and had picnics way more often than is necessary. It helps me feel a little less guilty about how badly I'm messing up my children.

4. The other day we had a late lunch, so when it was dinner time, none of us were hungry (everybody knows that story.) Well, after pjs were on and teeth were brushed the kids started complaining about being hungry. Once we realized that we forgot to feed them something--anything--before bed, we searched the cupboards for something to eat. Incidentally, I had NOT done the grocery shopping yet and every shelf in the refrigerator was a sorry sight. I did scrounge up enough things to make nachos, so we served that... on a communal platter... without utensils. As we ate, the girls started asking questions:

Qiana: Are we eating off this one plate because we are poor?

and later...
Qiana: Are we eating with our hands because we don't have spoons?
Siena: No, it's because it's faster this way and we need to go to sleep.

Proud parenting moment, for real.

5. We put Qiana in soccer with Siena. She is a natural at sports and she tears it up out with the boys on the field. Siena has kinda stepped down her game a bit since her sister started and we feel like soccer really isn't her thing anyway, so we're taking her out and giving extracurricular activities a break for a month or so. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime she's going to stay in piano, since she excels in that area. If she wants to, we'll give a ballet studio a try.