The Moving Begins, (even as we're not really packed so well...)

The progress at hand is this:  We have closed on the house and are sort of...moving?  We don't have a truck coming until later this month, so for now I am straddling two work sites.  So to speak.  Well, 3.  Because there is strike for Forbidden Planet this weekend.  And it will be mega.

We brought a bunch of Scott's gear to the house today - BIG thanks to Ursula and her truck and her muscles and her sense of humor - as well as some more of my kitchen stuff.

Waffles from now on will have to be prepared THERE, for I have no waffle irons here anymore. The fact that I have 4 waffle irons is patently absurd, really. Maybe we should discuss which I should get rid of. They are all weirdo irons. Two "normal" Mickey's, one "Swedish hearts" and one Belgian Waffle Maker. The question is how often do I really make waffles at all? For myself, I could probably stand to make no more waffles ever.  And - this just in- the reality based reality is that the George Foreman Grill also has...Belgian Waffle Plates.  So.  I COULD, in fact, make waffles here right now, in spite of having moved 4 waffle irons to the new house today, AND I could also be said to have 5 waffle irons.  Insanity.  

I am also thinking of downsizing the dishes. Crazy but true, and yet if we run the dishwasher every night, as we are wont to do, how many dishes do we really need even with 7 people? We could run it after every meal and still need only...7.  Probably.

The problem is...we have 3 sets. One is the nice Denby Regency Green that we picked in 1992. One is the Corelle stuff that is not the nicest but is darned practical, stores in no space, lightweight and nigh-indestructible. The third is Andrew's parent's Strawberry Fields "everyday" Wedgewood from when Andrew was growing up, which was passed to Jeanne and then to us as "something to get us started with."

The bottom line is, I definitely want the Denby and if I have a second set, the Corelle, I think? Not sure what I should do with the Wedgewood aside from put it in a box and don't open it. I'm not sure about donating it or whatever, laden with memory as it may be.  On the other hand, who chooses Corelle when they can have Wedgewood, right? 

One of my boys continues to want to sleep in the new house instead of coming home to the old house at the end of the day. I brought him there after school to do more unloading this afternoon and we just hung out and arranged things for a while.  You can probably imagine how that division of tasks actually went. I feel like I should be doing more here at the Eagan house. It was good to get a bunch of Scott's stuff moved, today, and now we have a great big table in "The Study," so there is homework potential there at least.  I am also going to bring the small desk (from Andrew's childhood) over probably tomorrow, so that if one of the boys wants to study in his room, that is a definite option.  Some people do better with more supervision.  Others do better studying in more solitude.  In this house, we probably have room for both.

I am so lucky.  In a million, gazillion ways, I am lucky. Additionally, unfortunately, I am feeling, as I knew I would, incredibly awkwardly conspicuous from having just bought a ridiculously big, fancy looking house.  People are excited about it and mock-claiming rooms and wanting to see it and plan parties and all, and that is totally understandable and meant, I know, in a spirit of fun and support.  At the same time...here we have found another edge of my comfort zone:  I'm REALLY not a center-stage person in life.  I occasionally put on some other aspect and do showy things for an evening or in performance, but...that's not really me.  Or at least not the greater part of me.  There is a reason I mostly lurk in the shadows and try to make things happen nigh-invisibly:  too much attention just makes me uncomfortable, especially attention for things that feel somewhat personal. BUT...there is no way to make this happen invisibly, and I guess I determined that I just have to push through this uncomfortable part where I feel I'm being mercilessly gawked at.  Well, at least until we get to the part where this is just boring old regular life again. In a lot of ways, I'd rather stay in my comfort zone, but there just wasn't room for this big crazy idea of an intentional extended family in a boring old regular zone, I guess.  So...I'll just have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

More things to prep for tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll hear from Sara soon!