We have arrived

 Hello, dear readers.

We made our move-- gradually, slowly, but also extremely quickly.  So much to catch up on and explain about how the whole process played out.

We are now living in Delaware, roughly two hours from Washington D.C.  This means we are very close to my siblings and about 1.5 miles from my parents!  It has been an amazing blessing to see them a lot this fall.

We are doing it!  We are living the dream.  Homeschooling, living close to family, setting healthy goals, eating well, spending time outside, and exercising.

To say that the summer and fall of 2024 was a whirlwind for the Sugar and Spice Family would be a gross understatement.  Exhaustion of moving across five states on top of pre-existing burnout is real.  It wasn't all butterflies and roses, for sure.  There was much hard work, transition, disruption, adjustment, living out of suitcases, and of course, many many big feelings.

Tonight, I'm sitting in the Starbucks right next to N's new dance studio that we were lucky enough to find fairly quickly and she has jumped right into team classes and training.  I'm taking a minute to breathe because... well... it feels a bit like this is the first moment I've had without 15 things on my to-do list that MUST BE DONE TONIGHT or our world will fall apart.  Of course there's things I could be doing, but the super-dee-duper urgent tasks are gradually falling away as we settle into our new lives.  And I'm feeling like I need to take this moment to just be thankful that we made it.  And we're doing it.  We accomplished our goal and we are living our dream.

In addition to all that, I'm accomplishing a smaller goal that I set for myself just this last week.  I told M as we were out for a walk the other night-- "I've realized some things about myself.  There are two things I really need to be doing.  One is talking to my husband.  The other is writing."

M and I have had a TON of ships passing time this fall, with him traveling a lot for work and our days just being so busy establishing a homeschool routine and jumping right in to a couple of kid activities in the midst of unpacking, organizing, and otherwise just settling in.  So, we're making it a priority to set aside time to talk.  This morning, we set a coffee date on our new deck for 6:45 AM and we just chatted for almost an hour.  It was glorious.

And yes, my other goal.  Writing.  I have decided to take N's Monday night dance time to write, despite the fact that there are always other pressing tasks.  Prioritizing writing is good for my soul, and so I'm doing it.  Here I am, making that commitment.  And this is the space where I'll try to make it happen, despite our on-again-off-again (mostly off, really) relationship over these past few years.

So, here's just a few pictures and a few observations about our new life here in the mid-Atlantic, so far.

The autumn leaves here happened slightly later in the season than we're used to seeing them, due to being that much further south, but they were just as colorful and amazing, and I feel like this year we really had the time to stop and observe and enjoy them, and it was just wonderful.

Parenting kiddos in middle school and high school isn't easy in 2024, but I am so grateful to have kiddos who make it very easy.  We have the most awesome conversations and it's an absolute privilege to hear their thoughts as they grow into adults.  I think of them as some of my best friends and it's easy to forget that they were very little not that long ago, so mature and thoughtful and insightful are they.  Homeschooling at the high school level has been at the same time really challenging but soooo cool.  I always enjoy nerding out and learning new things and brushing up on old topics I haven't thought about in a while.  It's pretty awesome that we have moved beyond a lot of "little kid" things and can think really deeply and learn together about things that are really relevant.

{One example is our election coverage today-- it's a stressful election for everyone to be sure, but I'm trying to zoom out and see the bigger picture, which we did by watching this video that M so helpfully shared and visiting this website to learn about the congressional candidates who also have a lot of power to affect change and legislation in our country.  L was able to co-teach with me since she remembered absolutely everything she had learned in her 8th grade civics class last year and had so many valuable insights to offer on the whole thing.  It was super enjoyable for me.}

And we have the gift of time, which for the last three years I have felt just kept on slippin, slippin, slippin...

I'm so thankful.

I think that's all I got for tonight, but I'll be back with you next Monday.  We will see what recaps or homeschool or music or motherhood musings I can muster.

It's so good to be back with you!  Sending my best wishes that you all are finding peace.

~Ab