Home Sweet Home

Finally, after nearly seven weeks away, we are back in our house. It's a royal mess. But at least we're here.

How do folks manage to leave for several months at a time in the winter?

I, who absolutely love to take vacations, have no desire to pack a suitcase again for quite some time. I'm sure that 'no desire' thing will last for a couple months anyway. At least til summer when we can go camping....

Anyway. We're home.

What amazes me is that we have moved our belongings eight different times in the past seven weeks.

One night in Moscow.
Several nights in Vlad.
Two nights in Nakhodka.
Several weeks in Vlad.
Four nights in apartment #1 in Moscow.
Two nights in apartment #2 in Moscow.
Thirteen nights in Jason's sister's house.
And now home.
Indefinitely.

Actually, what REALLY amazes me is that every time we moved in the past seven weeks, Will would walk in the door and proclaim, "Ahhh. Home Sweet Home". Every single time we moved.

I'm so thankful that children are so resilient. It didn't matter to him that with every move we had to tote our kazillion suitcases (okay, that is stretching things a little....we only had four carry-ons and one checked in for our little family). It didn't matter to him if the sheets were clean or dirty. It didn't matter to him if the beds were hard as a concrete slab or soft as a cloud. It didn't matter to him if....

The place we lived really didn't matter to him. If his whole family, his three changes of clothes, and his teensy pile of toys was there, he was home.

So. What have we been up to since we're officially home? We're keeping busy, I promise.

Tuesday morning the cleaning ladies came and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Minus a few things. At noon the moving crew showed up and moved all the stuff from the pod and the garage into the house. It was great!! If only I didn't have to unpack boxes now....

Tuesday afternoon I started to tackle some of the cleaning that the cleaning ladies didn't get. Such as the open shelves that house many of my dishes in the kitchen. Mom and Brenda (a friend) showed up to help me....a fact for which I am ever so thankful. Nearly every cupboard has to be emptied...and most of the dishes have to be washed. Apparently the dust was thick. It likely doesn't help that my cupboards are really old. Just ask Mom. My kitchen has to be the original kitchen from when the house was built. Few cupboards (some of them metal), a one hole ceramic sink with the drain boards on the sides. It maybe isn't the prettiest thing in the whole world, but it works. I'll never forget a couple years ago when one of my aunts came for a tour of our house. We took her around (which didn't take long) and ended up standing in the middle of the kitchen. She told us we had a cute place....but "where's the kitchen?" :)
She was slightly embarrassed when we told her she was standing in the middle of it!!

Anyway. The cupboards are now nearly cleaned. Most of the curtains are back up. The walls are ready and waiting for the pictures and whatnot to be hung back up again. The boxes sitting around are begging to be unloaded. Maybe that's my children begging for me to unload the boxes so they can find their toys again.

We moved half our stuff from Susan's yesterday. Couldn't bring all of it as the bed of Jason's pick-up was half full. It's amazing what all we accumulated over there. Every time we needed something we came home, found it in the pod, or the garage, or upstairs and took it "home" with us. Now it all has to come back. Hopefully today we'll find the time to get the rest.

Life is slowly finding a normal pace again. Slowly. It's time for normal to become a part of our lives again.

Sadly, our middle child (the one who declares every place to be home sweet home) is struggling with having a new little brother. I'm following him around...moving chair blocades from doorways, taking toys from high places and putting them back on the floor, listening to a constant "Nyet, Jack Nickolay! Those are mine!", reminding him that Jack is here to stay, giving many extra hugs, and finally, breathing a huge sigh of relief when he lays his little head on a pillow to 'rest'...as he's doing right now.

Life is rough when you go from being the youngest child to being the middle child. Especially when the youngest child arrives already walking. A new baby would be hard enough, but when the pipsqueak can get into everything? Now that's bad.

See what I'm saying? Only back home for a part of a day and little JN has claimed WILL'S tractor. Life is rough.

I really should get going. All three children are napping...so now would be a good time to accomplish a little something.

Today we're counting our blessings that we had a house to come home to. Sure, we would have loved to come straight home when we came back from Russia, but so many folks around the world don't have a house to call home. So many folks would be thrilled to just be out of their house for seven short weeks. So many folks would be thrilled to face the task of unpacking boxes.

Shame on us for ever complaining. We are truly blessed.