Movin' and Groovin'

 We are in full-on moving mode!  It's getting really close now!

Compare this to our pile of boxes from two weeks ago, and I can see that progress has been made!  It feels a little slow, because there's always so much more to be done, but I can see from this photographic evidence that we are getting there.

What else has been going on since I last posted?

Well... I got my second dose of vaccine!

I even got to watch some of Prince Phillip's memorial on the big screen, during my mandatory 15-minute waiting period after the shot.

I obviously couldn't hear the music in this crowded room, and I have been meaning since then to go back and watch again and fully experience it since I've heard the music was fabulous.  Did you watch?  What did you think?

Immediately after I got my shot we drove straight to my brother Zach's house in Virginia (this was the Saturday at the beginning of April vacation here in MA, so M was able to travel with us!).  After that it was two wonderful days of soaking up time with this little cherub...

She's simply the sweetest and we all couldn't get enough of her cuddles.  It was also wonderful for me watching my kid brother and his wife being the wonderful new parents that they are-- it was a very emotional and happy two days.  Sadly I had to spend half of the first day we were there in bed, with some vaccine side effects-- fever, super painful body aches, chills, headache.  My lovely sister-in-law kept the Tylenol flowing and luckily I was feeling much better the second day-- but it sort of surprised me that I experienced this because everyone else in our family has been fine after their second shot.  I AM the weakest link, lol!!  Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to take an 8-hour car trip the day of my shot... who knows???  It all turned out okay, but I was a little sad to miss time with baby N and be an invalid myself rather than a helper.

I wanted to hit up a Civil War battlefield while we were in the neighborhood, since L has to learn about Civil War battles for 5th grade social studies.  Uncle Zach took the day off work Monday, and off we went to Manassas!

Tailgate picnic (and my thumb in the shot 😬)

The weather was beautiful, and it was such a beautiful, peaceful spot.  It always seems ironic to me when we visit places like this, and they seem so tranquil, and yet such terrible things happened here.  We all learned a lot-- the visitors center is great and had so many interesting exhibits (including an actual piece of hard tack from one of the actual soldiers at the battle... yes it is ~160 years old!!!).  The girls completed the little booklets you see them holding, and were sworn in as junior park rangers!  So fun :)

One of the activities in their booklets was to write a letter home, the way the soldiers would have done.  J wrote: "Dear Zach, I am about to die, and I have died from the British.  Bleeeeeh.  Sincerely, J"  M was saying that we can forgive our preschooler for not picking up on the fact that the British were not involved in this conflict at all 😂

Being at a Civil War battlefield in this present time of intense polarization in our country made these events feel closer than ever... it was a bit unsettling, actually, to think about all that.  A poignant experience, a thoughtful day, and a beautiful one-- it made me very appreciative and thankful for our blessings.

We returned from Virginia on Tuesday of April vacation, because M had a grad credit class to take on Wednesday.  I also wanted to focus on more packing while I had the week off from teaching.  So in the last part of the vacation week we did a lot of hard work and a little bit of relaxing, too...

The makings of another at-home date night like the one we enjoyed over the February vacation!

The girls continued to help me with a lot of packing.  The labels that C writes on the boxes are always pretty funny... I think she might just spend more time decorating boxes with sharpies than she actually does packing, but at least we will have something to smile at come moving day.  Above she wrote "books" in both Spanish and "Greek"... and she has this other little trick of writing "CAUTION EXTREMELY HEAVY" on boxes that are light as a feather, and "Don't worry, not heavy" on boxes that will break your back to lift.  Sneaky little girl.

The good thing about the library being curbside-pickup only is that they have put a pause on fines due to materials being quarantined and not checked in right away when they're returned.  I've had this book for months and I'm only a little over halfway finished.  Trying to find some quiet moments to myself to take a break and finish it before we move.  It's hard to allow myself to relax but I really love these Poldark books when I give myself the chance to.

My other relaxation lately has been insane amounts of baking... I use the excuse that I have pantry and freezer items that are on the older side and I need to use them up before we move.  But the real reason is that baking is my happy place and it relieves stress for me.  Except when it comes time to clean up.  Lol.  Above you see pictured a coconut custard pie (I made 2!) that used up my coconut milk and shaved coconut.  Before that I made 5 1/2 dozen (!!!!) pumpkin cookies with some butternut squash from the freezer.  I'm sorry to say that all 66 of those cookies were gone in three days.  We have growing pre-teens... but M and I also did a good job helping.  We're storing up calories to be burned on moving day, right????

J found a fuzzy caterpillar on a walk the other day!

It has become somewhat of a Wednesday ritual for J and I to go to Starbucks after we drop the big girls off at their ballet class, while we're waiting for J's tap class to start.  I've mentioned it here before.  One day she asked for her own drink and I allowed her to try a vanilla bean Frappuccino... and it was love at first sip.  Now every Wednesday she asks for one, and I have a lot of trouble resisting because the calls them "Frappa-Ginos" pronounced like Papa Gino's which is a pizza place around here.  Yes, it's true... the baby gets spoiled.

By the time I thought to take a picture today she had already finished it, but she wouldn't allow me to take a picture of her with the empty cup because, "It's empty and that's embarrassing."  Hence the photo of the empty cup by itself, followed by this pretty photo of her.  We just love our Wednesdays!

That's all I have time for... stay tuned for more moving updates and pictures... only a week and a half to go!