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Playing Catch Up!

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I have so many things that I want to write about and gorgeous (non-phone-camera!) photos to share, but boxes are still not unpacked (they are getting there – you can FINALLY walk through the kitchen!) and things may stay a little crazy here for the next little bit.

Overall, things are good. Our house (which we picked out without seeing ourselves!!!) is lovely, and it has a small fenced-in area for the kids to play. I miss our Massachusetts yard, but the kids enjoy the mild California weather and have spent hours out doors (mosquito free!!!) every day.

Emma and Johnny are enjoying school, which is great – especially since the drop-off pick-up schedule at two different locations at nearly the same time is incredibly stressful (and not really sustainable for much longer, unless I find a very creative solution). So far I have managed to completely misinterpret one day’s schedule, and to arrive late for another pickup due to difficulties finding parking. I don’t think my son’s school is about to give me any parenting awards!

Lily is home with me and Anna, for the moment at least. I was not prepared for the intensity or expense of Bay Area preschools, and am not yet convinced that they are the place for her right now. So we will do home life preschool while she and I are both happy with that solution. I’m working on transferring Anna’s physical therapy to the West coast, and everything works differently here. To further complicate matters, we stay on our Massachusetts insurance until the end of the month, and California and Massachusetts medical systems aren’t exactly designed to mesh. I was very happy with the neurologist we saw, and that is worth a lot!

Our new home has a much different layout than our Massachusetts house – we moved from a rural ranch into a city townhouse, and nothing fits. I’m getting better at this new game of Tetris, and hope to conquer it by the end of next week. The kids are loving their four kids in one room arrangement, and I like having their bedroom designed for sleeping, with nearly all toys kept elsewhere. Of course, the best option for elsewhere is the living room, and so this particular level of Tetris involves making a playroom that can also double as a reasonably pleasant living area, while also incorporating the dining room table. It’s a fun challenge, honestly; I just wish I were a bit more efficient at finding attractive places for everything.

Mike is out of town for all but six days this month, and so I decided it was time to get serious about a formal chore system for the kids that would put more of the overall household responsibility on their shoulders. They are actually pretty excited about it, and I’ll write more about it once we’ve had some time to experiment with it formally!

What is keeping you busy right now?

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

34 thoughts on “Playing Catch Up!”

  1. I so love that picture. Sounds like you’re juggling quite a few balls, there. Hopefully things will settle down for you soon! (btw: I love the idea of a sleeping room for all the kiddos too)

  2. Oh my goodness! I’ve been thinking of you and wondering how you are all settling in. What a challenge, especially with Mike away so much, but it sounds like you are up for it. I look forward to hearing about the chore system and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a space opens up for Johnny at Emma’s school very very soon!

    1. Thanks! I *really* hope a space does open up, but where it is contingent on someone else leaving I have no idea of knowing when (or even if) that will happen!

  3. We have no toys in the bedroom where all three girls sleep. We might be changing it as P needs more sleep, while A and Q love still being silly and having their fun together. However, the last few evenings have been good, so right now i am not in a hurry.

  4. My daughter would love the everyone in 1 room. We did that for a while, but no one was sleeping and it didn’t work out in the end. Instead she gets to sleep in their room once in a while.

    I’m terrible at the tetris game of keeping up with stuff, that’s what’s got me busy right now it feels like a mess machine threw up in my house and my downstairs is trashed, and it’s stressing me a bit right now.

    1. It’s working for us so far (thanks in part to some careful planning, combined with my kids’ personalities). I really hope it keeps working, because in this particular house there is not a very good way for them to not all share a room!

  5. Great to hear how you are doing. I had wondered if you found a house. I know you had moved but didn’t know if you were living in temporary housing in the meantime, so very glad to hear you are settling into your new home. And so glad to hear that you do have a bit of yard space too. With four kids, outdoor space really helps a lot. =)

    Do your kids disturb each other when sharing all one bedroom?

    And jealous of no mosquitoes.

    1. No mosquitoes is pretty amazing, and outdoor space is a must (wherever possible)!

      The kids do pretty well in one bedroom. I set their room up so that they each have their own retreat where they can’t actually physically see each other, and I think that is key. Bedtime is (by far) the most structured part of our day, and they know that, which also helps.

    1. Thanks! Drop-off/pick-up is going more smoothly now that the kids are into the routine and that I have resigned myself to the fact that Johnny will just have to be late every day. His school understands the situation, and fortunately he is being a good sport about it.

  6. Glad it sounds like the move went well. My wife and I are currently thinking about moving house but only within a few miles of where we are at the moment and I’m slightly stressed about it all!

  7. Elisa | blissfulE

    What a GORGEOUS photo!!! You with your baby and Anna with hers! :) :) :) And those lovely happy smiles!! Made my day. :) :) :)

    Your house sounds so much like mine! Do you have high ceilings? That will really help with the “tetris” (love it!) of fitting things in if you do. Or at least help forestall feeling claustrophobic. Quite frankly, we have *very few toys* and my kids are incredibly content. People marvel at how creative they are with playing with them — and then often offer us more toys (LOL!), but I just tell them we don’t have room for them.

    The new chore situation sounds like a win-win and I’m excited to hear about it when you get the details more settled. Here’s hoping Mike will be around to enjoy your new home more in November!

    1. There is a high ceiling over the “dining room” part of the main room, and the master bedroom has a high ceiling. Both make a difference – and ceilings throughout the house are about 8.5 feet, so I can’t quite touch them (unlike in our house in Massachusetts) – so that helps, too!

      My house is about double the size of yours, but a staircase and three (!) bathrooms take up a shocking amount of space! The master bedroom is large – which is useful mainly as a home office space for Mike for even less time spent at work. There is a small bedroom downstairs, and that’s where we put all the books, and a couch that people can stay on when they visit. The kids’ bedroom is, I think, 12’x12′ with a gabled ceiling – so a good size, but we went with short IKEA Kura bunk beds to make up for the low ceiling. I think I need to see how I can transform the bathrooms into storage space… I have actually used a lot of what you have shown and written in your house as inspiration, and I think we do need to pare down the toys. We got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved out here, but not enough! Getting rid of stuff is always good!

  8. I can understand the expense of Bay Area preschools, sigh. Hope you find an arrangement that works for you guys. The two different schools must be so frustrating, but yay, for the kids liking the 4-in-1 sleeping arrangement.

    1. I’m really glad the sleeping arrangement is working. We have three bedrooms, but one is downstairs and with little kids I like to keep everyone on the same floor.

  9. Wow, you keep a wonderfully positive attitude in the midst of this enormous change. I keep my fingers crossed that something will work out with schools soon! And you are right about our preschools – they are crazy expensive and competition driven. If I were to choose again, I’d opt for Montessori school, but even they are catching advanced academics bug.

  10. Wow MaryAnne! I don’t know how you do it. I wish I was nearby to help you unpack all those boxes lol. I have a pretty normal day to day life and I already feel like I’m strapped for time :) Glad to hear an update from you and things seem like they’re moving along great.

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