We recently decided to move, which explains why my blog has been absent of activity for the past two months. When I started Something to Dwell Upon this spring, my goal was to write a few times a week. I found it cathartic. The early morning hours before my children woke up became my golden hours for writing. And then our realtor showed us a shingle-style house in a neighborhood not far from where we currently live. It had a flat front lawn for soccer practice, a creek stocked with small fish, a white kitchen and a large basement to entertain the kids during the long winter months. We bid, signed the contract, sold our house and closed on the new one within two months. The buying-selling-moving process knocked the writing right out of me.
I am pretty certain that I caught the “moving bug” in May from my next-door neighbors. I swear, it is contagious, so build up your immunity before coming into contact with me. This bug comes with emotional and physical symptoms including high levels of stress, irritability, inability to make decisions, hair loss, weight gain (this has nothing to do with all of the fast food I’ve eaten lately) and tears (I didn’t know that I would miss my old house so much).
Like any move, ours was not without its challenges. In an effort to save money, I decided that we would move as much as we could ourselves and I booked a "cheap" moving company. The plan started off well. I asked the moving company for a list of the most cost-saving items to move ourselves. I was told fragile items, paintings, lamps, electronics and kids’ toys. My husband and I gathered our moving materials: empty wine cases (great for glassware and utensils), garbage bags (for toys and clothes), and plastic tubs from our attic (the catchall for everything else). We spent a week moving our kitchen, playroom, garage, outdoor furniture, artwork and accessories. Despite all of our time, we only saved 15 percent off of the original moving quote and ended up exhausting my car which died in our driveway on moving day. The "cheap" moving company I hired missed day one of our move because they got into an accident on the way to our house. On day two, they showed up with a U-haul and two less men than they were supposed to bring and knocked a hole in our wall with my dresser. They forgot several big items they were supposed to move, but managed to fit our old speakers and furniture that was sitting by our trash bins into the truck (these went home with them, which was fine, but I wish they'd fit my planters and bench into the U-haul instead). Oh, and it poured that day.
To give the kids something to do while we moved, I instructed them to search the house for anything that the sellers had left behind. No drawer was to be left unopened. I was certain they would find a few items. During our previous move eight years ago, the sellers had left a workbench in the garage filled with tools (my husband was thrilled), a silver urn in the kitchen (I was thrilled), and a buddha in the garden (I gave it away). This time around, all they found were some old spices in a drawer. Disappointed, they went down to the basement to watch television. It wasn't until I walked outside to take a break that I found the astronaut. He was perched on top of a pillar under our covered porch. I quickly called up my son who helped get it down with a broom. As we walked back into the house to show the girls, we heard a noise behind us. A red-breasted robin swooped in with twigs. Within five minutes, a nest was built. The astronaut had been used as a scarecrow. We like our new red-breasted friends (the robin has already had babies). It's nice to watch them settle into their new nest as we settle into ours. The astronaut has found a new home in my son's toy box.
