Packing it in.

Here are a few observations made during the packing/moving process:

1. The cans invite friends.  In my case, those friends include four very large cans of baked beans. I don’t eat baked beans. No one in my family eats baked beans.
2. The cupboard above the refrigerator manufactures things.
3. Someone is apparently washing down my baked beans with not one, but two bottles of peach schnapps. I cannot recall buying peach schnapps. Both of these bottles are about ½ gone.
4. There is a point when the 10 year old combusts. That point is when you roll up the rug in his room. Too excited to be contained, he skipped and hooted through the house.
5. There is not enough times that you can clean the desk and behind the shelves of the 10 y.o. I found his birthday gift cards that have been missing. Recently he announced that his ½ birthday is next week. For those of you playing along at home, he has been missing gift cards for 6 months that have been sitting on top of his desk.
6.  I might always need that. Whether it is something I’ve saved or something I don’t want to pack before the move, I might need that. I had to declare the “last batch of muffins” so that it was safe to pack the mixer and muffin tins. I have a staggering list of things to do this week, but could not make myself pack my favorite running cap with the ponytail hole.
7.  Moving food – do you or don’t you? Discuss. Variables include aggregate value of item, i.e. ½ bottle of truffle oil is totally coming. Whereas ¼ the large jar of poppy seeds from Guercios, not so much. Another critical variable is how much will it annoy me to have to repurchase said item. I will remember dumping things that I stocked up on (crushed tomatoes) but will likely forget that one of those things was rarely used (bamboo shoots). Finally distance is at play. I can and have made a run to the new house with the groceries redeposited in the same bags in which they came home from Wegmans/Guercios. Interstate moves make the mileage supersede the value of the truffle oil and certainly a bag of flour. I mean seriously, I’m not Caroline Ingalls and I don’t have to wait for the mercantile to stock up on necessities so that I can barter with the harvest.
8.  An interstate move is easier as a SAHM than a 10 mile move is while working.
9. It is so important to not let the chaos get in the way of the good stuff. Without a TV (already moved to the new house), the piled into bed with me and we watched a movie together. Yep, I could have been, and arguably should have been packing. I wasn’t. I have no regrets. It won’t be long before the 10 y.o., closely followed by the 8 y.o.’s won’t want to do that.
10. The boys are just fine but may be feeling just a little uncertain. While making dinner, they could not be close enough to me tonight while insisting on playing Hangman, and incidentally their ill fated stick men could use some more parts. After told that I refused to guess anything that was Pokemon-related, Aidan’s phrase was “Mommy and family”, even though it is common knowledge that I am a second class citizen when the great god, DADDY is around.
11. I will have moved 12 times since college, 8 times with Scott and this makes 4 times with children. I’d really like the next move to be either in a pine box or with one suitcase containing my bathing suit, linen dresses and skin care to the Islands.