August 2021

Remediation of our house finished at the end of July, and so we wasted no time in putting our house up for sale directly afterwards.  We contacted our favorite cottage rental up north, and asked him if we could stay there for a week while our house was shown.  We were so happy when he said it was available, and hoped that our house would sell the week we were up north.  It would be priceless to not have the stress of strangers walking through our house during a pandemic and having to keep it constantly clean with four kids living there.  So, up north we went and we left the sale of our home in the hands of our very capable realtor.  

Packing up for a week vacation for six people including food is a feat in itself.  Getting the house ready to show potential buyers while also packing up for a trip was something I hope to not do again, any time soon.  When we got to our happy place though, it was all worth it.

My family of six is happy at the beach.  A peace settles over us.  It is blissful.  The youngest two in our crew feel this same peace and bliss at playgrounds.  So, we tempered the begging for playground time with a few visits to our favorite up north playgrounds.

The oldest two of our crew (Will and I) feel this same peace and bliss on hiking trails.  Since we have the driver's licenses, we tried a hiking trail each morning.  At this point, we just rotated through our favorites as we have been here enough to know which trails we love best.

The youngest four of our crew do pretty well for the most part on hiking trails.  It helps that they each have their own interests to discover when hiking.  In clockwise order from top left: Opal loves drawing with a stick in any sand or dirt she finds, Violet loves holding my hand, Lucy loves finding amazing photo opportunities, and Emma loves any physical challenge she can find.

I myself am looking for views, and the hikes we love have plenty to offer.  I think it's safe to say that Will enjoys it all, and takes one for the team with our heavy backpack and carrying Opal for the majority of it.  All of us enjoy the picnics.

Every evening we were torn about whether or not to watch the sunset on the sand dune or at the cottage fire pit.  Talk about vacation problems.   Here we are below, on the evenings we chose the sand dune.  We usually brought cookies with us and enjoyed the view and the giant sand box as we watched the sun set.

 Enjoying the sunset at the cottage campfire is also a wonderful time, and the s'mores make it even sweeter.  The below photos I will title: "S'mores and Selfies."

It was difficult for Will and I to relax completely, knowing which dates and times our house had showings, and waiting to hear the potential buyer feedback.  Before our trip was over, we had accepted an offer on our house.  Our prayers had been answered, we would't have to keep the house in showplace order when we got back.  Or so we thought.  We didn't realize all of the other events needed including home appraisal, home inspection, walk throughs, etc. for selling a house, but still, the fact that we had an offer in place still cut down on the foot traffic immensely.  The photos in clockwise order from top left below: a little toad we found when we arrived at the cottage on the first afternoon, a monarch greeting us upon arrival, the girls picked up flower petals from the ground and decorated the porch swing while we packed the car on our final day, Will and Lucy deflating the inner tubes on our final evening, Will popping out a homemade chicken pot pie we had brought for one of our meals up north, and finally, the sunset in front of our cottage.

We had mixed feelings as we drove home.  We had mostly sadness at selling our house, and we knew we were one step closer to saying goodbye, despite the good news of having a buyer.  In clockwise order from top left below: my gratitude at seeing the hand sanitizer and masks our realtor had set out for all the people who walked through our house, Will putting the strawberry runners into pots so we can take some to wherever we are going, Will trying to breathe when we find out that things are not going smoothly with the selling process (attic insulation tested negative for asbestos but there was an asterisk that said O.05% was still possibly present and now the buyers are demanding thousands of dollars to remediate or they will walk away), our favorite maple tree in our backyard lost a huge branch in a storm, narrowly missing our house and we couldn't help but think it was symbolic to our move so I gave the tree a hug.

The girls did a lot of bead art this past month, which has easy clean up.  Emma did a huge Harry Potter square with some help from Lucy.  It was like performing an operation to iron that one into an adhesive unit, but I pulled it off.

Kids will be kids and although we had some moods about moving, for the most part they played as usual.  In the top, middle photo below I found a hair tie in the fridge.  I don't even ask why any more, but I am certain that no matter how carefully we clean when we move, the new owners will be finding hair ties for years to come.

Opal loves having tea parties, and in the below photos she is enjoying them with sisters and me at different times.

Lots of outdoor play happened this past month.  In clockwise order from top left below: enjoying an after dinner ice cream cone, trying to decide if spilled potato chips are worth crying about or licking off of the pavement, some American Girl doll furniture that Will and Violet made, and a drawing by Violet.

The fireflies were out this past month, and watching my kids catch and release fireflies is one of the most magical things I've been lucky to witness.  Here Opal is below, giving some love to a firefly she caught.  I think God made fireflies slow on purpose so that kids could interact with them so easily.

We have perfected the rotation of pens for our chickens so that they always have grass to free range on.  Below they have been just let loose on fresh rye and clover.  Once they turn this pen into mud, we will block it off and plant more seed for them to do the rotation all over again.  Rye grows in just a few weeks and it took us a few years to learn an efficient combo.  One of the reasons we were happy to accept the offer of our buyers, is they loved the suburban farm and asked to keep our chickens in the sale.  We will miss the chickens, but since we don't know where we are moving to yet or if we will be living with family for a while, it was a major stress relief to know they would not be homeless and can continue to enjoy the home they've always known.

Next up on what I will miss includes my wildflower meadow and my peach tree.  I was grateful to know that this would be the last harvest of peaches I would enjoy from my tree.  At least I got to say good bye and savor the peaches to the fullest.  Peaches are my favorite fruit, and this little peach tree produced so well for us.

We went to a sunflower field with friends this past month.  It was super hot with no shade, and a little too hot for Violet but thankfully we brought an umbrella to provide shade for her.  Being unable to sweat takes away the carefree feel of summer for us, as we need to be sure there is always available shade and water for Violet or it could become a medical emergency.  In the beginning of the trip, Violet was embarrassed to use the umbrella as no one else had one, so she opted to use her jacket as a shade covering.  But the jacket just made her hotter and as she started feeling worse, she begrudgingly took the umbrella.  Kids just want to fit in, and it hurts my heart that she doesn't have that choice.

I think she still had a good time, and it was nice to do something that was COVID safe with friends.  We are still cautious of COVID, and any time we get to spend safely with friends is such a happy occasion.

My longest-time friend, from fifth grade, came for a visit from Chicago this past month.  Oh the joy of this reunion, as we hadn't seen each other since pre-COVID.  We kept the visit outdoors and put masks on to hug the heck out of each other.  A silver lining to COVID is we would have never spent that day outside if it wasn't for the pandemic.  It was super hot and humid and sticky out.  But, we made the best of it with the slip and slide for the kids, a cold couscous and veggie salad for lunch, the girls homemade lemonade and watermelon and I think it was way more fun and festive than if we had stayed inside in the air conditioning.

We had another playdate with friends we hadn't seen since COVID, and despite rainy weather, utilized our covered front porch for a lovely visit.  In between rain showers the kids played in the yard.

Seeing our friends this past month were definitely the highlights in an otherwise sad month as we moved closer to saying goodbye to our beloved home.  In times of trouble, it helps me to have a written list of the simple things that I can do every day to bring me joy.  On my list after connecting with friends is making gemstone jewelry and cuddling Charlie.  In the photos below from top left in clockwise order: when the necklace you made your friend and your own necklace break at the same time, you fix them at the same time, me snuggling Charlie and then us both disinfecting ourselves afterward - me with a wardrobe change so my allergies calm down, and him with a spit bath.  The next photos show what happens when little hands get into the beads I am using.  Oops - some landed in Opal's oatmeal!  And finally, a pattern I am making for another friend's necklace.

August launches the busy season for the math posters we sell, and we ended up needing to order more.  It is our first reorder since we started the business in 2012.  This time we ordered a smaller amount, since we didn't know if we would have the space to store them at wherever we were going to next.  We will miss our huge garage with the upstairs storage.  The girls helped us collate the posters and cap the tubes.  The center photos below show me making the last payment on my new business so I am now debt free from the start up costs, and me working on my new business website.

We are trying to remain hopeful that if God told us it's time to move, that he has also prepared where we will go next.  It's hard to not feel discouraged though, as now it has been two months and we still haven't found a home to move to.  So many unknowns and just sadness at having to say goodbye without any concrete hope for the future.  This past month was perhaps the hardest month yet mentally, emotionally and physically as we walked the walk of faith and wallowed in our proverbial desert and my mold symptoms (severe exhaustion, brain fog, crazy sweating during sleep or any physical exertion, insomnia, anxiety, severe sensitivity to chemical odors to the point where I can't go into stores or Will wear deodorant around me, allergic reactions that leave me sipping Benadryl and terrible facial swelling) as well as Lucy and Emma's continued to get worse.  The remediation company told us that cross contamination was a real risk when remediating with the method that they use, and I believe that is what happened in our house.  On top of which, we found out that they didn't use the proper safety protocols.  We tried fighting this with them, but it was our word against theirs and we decided to drop it.  We were leaving after all, and the new homeowners would have an 18 month guarantee with our paid receipt so they could fight this battle if they so wished.  Sadly for this company, we have many contacts in building biology and they definitely burned a huge referral bridge when they messed up and misused the thousands of dollars that we paid them.  I know as I type this how the story unfolds from here and I wish I could say that it gets easier.  What I can say is that without fail, every time I feel stuck in the desert with God, he reveals to me at a later time that every moment was bringing us to our next chapter, in the best way possible.  I can say after this month, that the irony was not lost on me that despite this being one of the hardest summers of my life, I also spent the most time up north I ever have in one summer in my happy place.  For that silver lining I am thankful!