Alive and well (finally)

Coming back after almost 2 months of no blogging is a bit overwhelming. But we're finally settled in (mostly, if you don't count that half of our stuff is still in boxes), and my camera and computer are bursting with untouched photos that I've taken over the past couple of months. So instead of waiting for the perfect night to write a lengthy post with 3 dozen of photos and a long list of happenings (which I've been trying to do for the past couple of weeks), I'll jump back into blogging *right now*, no more excuses to keep putting it off (fighting and whining kids don't count, right?).

I'll save more elaborate and detailed blogging for that time of night when everyone's asleep, so for now I'll be joining Ginny's 'Yarn Along'.

To say that my knitting has been scarce since we started moving would be a huge understatement. My sewing and knitting supplies got packed first, and after moving everything into our new house, I simply couldn't bring myself to pick up one of my projects when there were boxes of stuff everywhere. Besides, for some reason I've been more tired in the evenings than usual and going to bed earlier than I'd normally like to. Considering that evenings (up until 2 a.m.) is when most of knitting and creating used to happen, not much of it was happening after we moved. And knitting during the day is pretty much a joke. I can't make it through one row without being interrupted at least twice.

Then a couple of weeks ago we joined our friends for a Sunday dinner, and sometime during my conversation with Amy we decided it would be fun to start having a weekly knitting night with other friends and neighbours who would be interested in joining us. So for the past couple of weeks we've been getting together on Tuesday nights, and knitting away well into the midnight. I can't put it into words how much I've been enjoying these knitting nights. Talking to grown-ups, making friends, discussing and exploring all kinds of [crazy] ideas and staying up late are all the things that I've been wishing for in these past few months, and maybe even years. And hey, I'm finally getting some knitting done!

In the photo:
Groovy Cable Tuque in Shepherd's Wool
Woodland Shawl in Kauni Effektgarn (EQ colorway)

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Drawing with Children

forgot to mention...

I guess it's time for an official 'we are moving!' post. Except there's no exclamation point in real live. More like, 'ugh, we have to pack up and move before December 18 and hopefully AFTER we find a new place to live'. Our plans (more like wishful thinking) to move sometime in January prompted our landlord to list the house for sale right away, which then turned into 'the house is sold and you have to vacate within 30 days' notice.

the not-so-lovely result of dry Utah air, endless cleaning and not enough time to run to the store for coconut oil

Between getting the house ready for sale, then having people come look at it for days in a row, inspections and packing, all in the last 10 days or so, we haven't even had much time to look for a new place for us. So here we are, with our home half packed away and three-ish weeks left to find a suitable home for our family. The fact that not everyone is crazy enough to move right before Christmas means that we don't have to spend that much time looking at online rental listings. I guess you could call it an 'upside'. Right? Right?..

she insisted on helping me pack

But life goes on, and Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so today, more than ever, I count my blessings and try to be more conscious of things I can be grateful for. Going through our belongings, trying to minimize the amount of boxes we have to pack, load and unload, made me realize how many things we've accumulated in our 8 years of marriage and 6.5 years of parenthood. And it's not boxes of stuff, it's those 8 years of marriage and 6.5 years of parenthood that I'm overwhelmingly grateful for right now.

I know somehow we'll get through this. Somehow we'll find just the right place for us. Maybe we'll be cramped for a while, maybe we will have to live out of the boxes for a few months, or won't have a shiny Christmas tree with home-sewn gifts for children neatly wrapped under it. But in the end, we're still together, as a family, taking our home with us wherever we go.

I know one day our memories will bring us back to this time and all of today's troubles will seem small and distant, the intensity of these days will fade away, and my memory might even trick me into thinking that our children were very cooperative and helpful when we were trying to pack and clean. But right now, it's all real, as it is, and we'll just keep pushing through it, one day at a time. Thinking about this time in our lives reminds me of last weeks of pregnancy, when you are uncomfortable, with all kinds of aches and pains invading your body, barely getting any rest and wishing for it all to be over. Then the big day comes, weeks and months go by after the birth of your new baby, and the intensity, the reality of that discomfort and pain fade away. You remember thinking about how miserable you were, but at the same time it doesn't seem so bad any more. That day will come...

Speaking of babies. This is the home where Anya and Ivy were born. The two ties I will never be able to break with this house...

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And to end this post on a more cheerful note, I'm sharing my rainbow today. I was barely able to do any knitting lately, but between doing a couple of rows in the car and a few rows late at night after a long day of cleaning, my rainbow keeps growing. The colors make me smile every time I see them, blending into one another, transforming the project with every new color change. I don't know when it will be done, and I'll most likely have to give priority to other things in this coming month, but doing even a couple of rows a day is such a treat. Not to mention my kind of therapy...