A Thousand Tiny Anchors

*I wrote this over a week ago, and was about to post it when I realized that our internet had been prematurely canceled.  Read this pretending that we haven't already moved, and I promise I'll post house pictures soon.  And yes, this blog will probably have a new theme/layout every time you visit.  What?


We are not pack-rats.  Moving every single year, while a huge pain, has also given us a yearly opportunity to get rid of stuff we no longer need or want.  That we aren't overly sentimental, or at least that we don't tend to overvalue objects in the name of sentimentality, makes the process much easier.

This move is no exception - we're being brutal.  But there's something else different this time, too.  The spirit of the purge, I suppose.  With every move before, the motivation to toss something is that it's one less thing to pack and unpack.  There was nothing particularly satisfying about putting something in the Goodwill box instead of the Keep box.  This time, though, every item purged feels like shedding skin, it feels like I'm breathing cleaner air, opening a window, like I've been carrying that Thing on my back for five years and now it's gone.  I feel unburdened.    

First big bo-bo

So, this happened:

Remodel: Midst

These are from last week, after the demo and the plumbing/electrical work was mostly done.

A reminder of the before

Book Report: Parenting with Purpose

I feel like I've read just about every book under the sun about pregnancy and childbirth (well, at least all the crunchy ones).  Ina May, Michel Odent, Suzanne Arms, Jennifer Block, Sheila Kitzinger, and all their pals have been lining my bookshelf since I was about fifteen.  I feel like I have a pretty solid foundational knowledge of birth.

Parenting is a different story.  I'm treading unknown waters, here.  I see fins.

It's time to bone up.

I have bought a few books on parenting, narrowing it down to guides that branch from attachment parenting, with a focus on gentle and non-punitive parenting.

My first read was Parenting with Purpose by Lynda Madison.  I started out with really high hopes, underlining and dog-earing, soaking it up and nodding in agreement.  As the book went on and started talking about actual discipline techniques, I started to get real disappointed real fast.

Remodel: Before

We've bought our first house and we're moving.

Hurray!

In two weeks, we will be renters no longer.  We have moved every year since we were married, and finally, our nomadic journey is coming to an end.

The house we purchased is in need of a little TLC.  The previous owners made some...unfortunate choices.  And she's an older home, so the layout is somewhat shut-in.

Right now we're smack in the middle of the remodel.  I definitely had naive expectations of what this process would be like, even having watched more than my fair share of renovation disaster shows on TLC.

No, my friends, it's every bit as stressful as it looks on TV.