Hiding Spot

If your child comes up to you with a sucker unwrapped and asks if he can have it, investigate where the sucker came from.

Widdle did this the other day and I told him that he may have it, but not to unwrap a sucker again before being given permission to eat it. Later I went into the play room and noticed Waddle had two suckers with gum in the middle and was clanking them together. I took them away and noticed the pumpkin full of candy, turning slightly I noticed the guitar had something sticky on it. I bent down to clean it off and noticed a whole stash of candy wrappers. I started cleaning them out and could not believe how many pieces of candy had been consumed. While digging out the wrappers Albert came in and we quickly discussed the consequences. We determined that no candy or dessert for a month was a good punishment. Does that seem harsh? Here's the list of what all I found:

tootsie roll (the long ones)

two suckers

sugar daddy

taffy wrapper

box of nerds

After eating all of this is when he asked me for another sucker! I am still a bit in shock over his genius, sneaky, manipulative, selfish, sinful depravity. He did not have to be taught how to steal and hid something that he really wanted. Thankfully he did not get sick, but he will be learning this lesson for a while.

It is easy to laugh when I think of this situation and when I tell it to others. One parenting book that I have read encourages parents to look at the heart motive or attitude behind the sin. It is easy to discipline and teach children not to take candy without asking and not to hid something that they have done that they know is wrong, the difficulty comes in trying to penetrate their hearts with the truth of the Gospel and helping them to change. Praying for their heart's desire to change and trusting God to do the changing is hard. It has been difficult for me to give up the control that I never had. So, while Widdle is learning not to steal treats and missing out on dessert, I am learning to trust Christ to change his heart and release the desire to force him to submit. I think this lesson will be life long and worth while.

Unpacked

I unpacked the last box yesterday!!! Albert still has one box to go and we have a lot of things to hang on the walls, but all of the boxes that I am responsible for are empty!!! Now the real cleaning will begin.

Here's the re-cap. We got on the interstate around 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 2nd. I would prefer to have left around 3:00 a.m., so I felt a little late all day and had to keep reminding myself that the drive would take all day and into the night. And it did! The drive went pretty well and we arrived at roughly 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. The drive was pretty uneventful. Widdle L.O.V.E.D. riding in the big truck with his Papaw and Waddle was just fine riding in the Mini (what I call our van! Ha!) Piddle just hung out except for during the three minutes that I drove, she screamed bloody murder then. We stopped several times for gas and food and potty breaks, took one wrong turn in New Orleans which was a tad scary and rolled on in. I was so excited when we pulled up to our house that I could hardly sleep the rest of the morning.

We woke around 6:30 or 7, got dressed and headed to Cr@cker Barrel. Within minutes of receiving our drinks Widdle spilled his on the floor. Moments later Waddle broke a plate on the floor. I was quickly reminded of why we don't go out to eat much. We came back to the house and the guys got ready to unload the truck and trailer. I took the kids up to my mom's school for a quick hello, then headed to the grocery store. No, I did not have a list. BIG mistake! I am not a fan of W@l-mart anyway, but it is dreadful if you don't have a list!!! We walked around aimlessly for a while, grabbed a couple of things and headed back to the house. When we arrived the truck was unloaded and the house was full of boxes. I felt a tad overwhelmed at the amount of work that was waiting for me. A dear friend blessed us with lunch and my mom brought dinner over and the unpacking began. Most of the boxes were out by Thursday. We went to a Bible study that we were a part of when we were here before. And the last 6-10 boxes sat.

Saturday I went to W@l-mart with a list around 6:30 a.m. which is a great time to go! Later my mom and I took the kiddos to the Arts Festival downtown and gave Albert some time to just unpack and work on whatever he wanted to without having to re-direct the littles.

Sunday we tried our first church, though we have actually tried two others while visiting over the last year. It was good, but we don't want to stop looking and just go with the first one that seems to be a good fit.

Monday we prepared for a hurricane and the boxes sat. I also started to get sick.

Wednesday my friend from high-school came by and the rest of the week is a bit of a blur. Albert helped me get some rest and took care of the littles quite a bit. Friday morning we bought Waddle a little toddler bed.

Saturday we went to the Blue Angle's Homecoming show. It was amazing and well worth the LONG walk from the car and the energy it took to keep 3 littles and a kid occupied for hours. It felt like a welcome back party for us!

Sunday we did church at home. I was feeling better, but Waddle spiked a fever at bed time Saturday night. After church, while the littles napped and Albert worked with my dad, I unpacked the last boxes!

We are not totally settled in as there is a ton of cleaning still to do, along with painting and putting all of that stuff away instead of on any flat surface that I can find. But it is starting to feel like home. I guess that's a long/brief update on what we've been up to.

Oh and while I was sick we were battling fleas. The dogs have not been in the house at all, but it seems that Albert brought some in after working in the yard. So we have been trying to get the fleas out of our brand new carpet! It has been a bit of a pain, but I think we are almost there. I am sure that more things have happened over the last two weeks, but this will do for now!

Moving Tips

While loading up our things the last couple of days I have learned several tips that might help you the next time you move.

- Have every single item in a box before your friends come to help load the truck. Do not stop packing because you are tired, just keep going!

- Sell as much as you can before you start packing. You would rather have extra space and less stuff than need a trailer behind your huge truck!

- Eat all of the food in your freezer/fridge a week or more before the move. This way you won't feel obligated to eat what is in the fridge the day before you turn your house in/sell.

- Take a deep breath and submit when your dh recommends throwing something away rather than packing it. This is hard, but good.

- Do all of the laundry before the move and make sure to put it all somewhere before friends get there to load the truck.

- While clearing out the bathrooms to make packing easier, go ahead and pack the personal items so that dh's co-workers do not have to move them and you feel embarrassed.

- Try to keep your children on a good sleep schedule the week leading up to the trip, this should help the trip go more smoothly.

If you follow these tips, you might have a pretty painless experience. Otherwise, you might feel a bit like I do right now! The kids have taken VERY late naps the last three days. They have stayed up over an hour late at night and last night the two littlest slept terribly. I'm not really sure that Piddle slept at all. Right this moment all three are sleeping in the hotel bed right beside me. I am hoping this lack of sleep will lead to a lot of sleep in the car. And, about the personal items, Yeah, I did that. I could feel my face turning red as I frantically tried to figure out how to stop what I was doing and quickly remove the embarrassment. The laundry, yep, I did that too. I heard my father-in-law say "how about the washer and dryer next." So, I quickly ran to the dryer and pulled out all of the cloth diapers. We used the clothes for padding in various boxes. Unpacking should be a blast! No, we didn't sell/throw out enough stuff before the move, so we will be the dorks pulling a U-h@ul trailer behind a Pen5ke truck. I will be getting rid of more upon unpacking! At this point I hope we never have to move again. That is inevitable though. Maybe next time we'll just rent two trucks!