6 days

There are five days left until the moving van comes.

Six days until we start our drive back to Tennessee.

Even though we all want this move

Even though we can't wait to be home

Even though we are returning to friends who can't wait to see us

and we can't wait to see them

Even though we are moving closer to family

Even though we are taking steps closer to our dreams

Even though I will return to my garden

Moving is still hard.

We are all having strong emotional reactions to this move.  

The children, each in his own way, is dealing with seeing their things packed away in boxes.

Nothing is where it used to be.  Everything is out, exposed, chaotic, disorganized.

We all want to move, but it is still emotional to pack up.

Elias is a nester, and he loves his "stuff" more than anyone in the family.

He spends hours in his room, with all his stuff set out around him.

Playing, building, imagining.

And, he is not liking this packing his stuff away.

He is getting angry, talking disrespectfully to me.

I grounded him for the first time.  

He has been naughty, and I have been hard on him.

Maybe too hard, considering.

Atticus cried when I told him the art table was not coming with us.

"It is too small, we need a new one, for a big boy." I said, hoping to comfort him.

"Can it have the same kind of drawers?" He asks, through tears.

What should I say?

I didn't expect him to start to cry,

to have this emotional connection to his table.

His little table.  Where he played almost every day since we have been here.

Where he made me play clay pancakes.

Memories are all tied up in "stuff".

Can we keep the memories, and lose the stuff?

It's hard.

Atticus and Dash pulled their tool box out to help with the pulling of nails and unscrewing of screws.

That brought them more joy and squeals of laughter than Wade and I expected.

There are some fun parts of moving too.

And going through stuff and getting clearing our is so so good.  It is crazy how much we have to get ride of after only 6 months of doing the same thing!

But, what do you do with clothes that don't really fit any child right now?  Will it ever fit Atticus and his skinny waist?  Is it worth keeping, with the hopes Atticus will be able to wear it someday?

Do you carry around clothes that someone gave you that are too big for the big boys?

That will take them years to grow into?

Where do you store this, and how?  What if when they fit into it, it is the wrong season? 

Dash has been working on a play with his class about Isis and Osiris.  They will be preforming it the 20 of Dec.  Dash asked if we could stay and move the 21st.  

Poor guy.  All I can do is be honest, and help them learn to handle these emotions.

Hopefully, this is the last move.  And, we will all be stronger because of it.

We had some really nice times here.  I love Washington DC.  

We will remember it fondly.