It's almost 2018 (really!) and the Eff Family has been uprooted. After 17 years of living in NC (13 in the same house), we packed up, donated, or sold all our stuff and moved to the midwest, three states away.
The main reason for the move was that I left my job of seventeen years. I moved to a new area in my field, and was able to get a job that was much less stressful. I had gotten to the point where I dreaded going to work everyday. I'd been looking since my maternity leave, so I was thrilled to be able to find an interesting job in a location we were happy to try out.
We were never good southerners. For one thing, we hate heat. The mild winters were OK but the summers were blazing humid hell. Then, there were the bugs. For all I know, there may be just as many hideous creepy-crawlies in our new state. But I can tell you one thing: since I am no longer living beneath a canopy of oak forest, not nearly as many will be marching into my house or lurking right outside my front door. Woohoo, less bugs!
Leaving was a happy-sad thing for Isadora. We had already moved schools this year from a magnet to the neighborhood elementary so she'd only been there for a month. But she's such a sociable kid, she'd already made friends and gotten to like the teacher. So she was sad about leaving the new teacher and her new friends. But she was over the moon about not having to catch the bus at 6:40 am in the dark. Now, we can walk her to school; it's only a couple blocks away and it starts at 9! NINE!
Rory doesn't seem to be phased by the move. He had fun "helping" pack all the boxes, then unpack them (there are still a few to be unpacked). He and Isa both are fascinated by the stairs in our new rental home. He turned one at the end of September and had a little family party with his grandpa, stepgrandma, and our family friend Steve. At that point he was standing up a lot but not walking. By the time we moved into our townhouse, he was starting to really walk, and he quickly learned climbing too. All the way up the stairs!
It took a lot of stress, planning, uncertainty, and work, but we love our new city so far and all the other "new" things that go along with it. We already know two families from WV nearby, and Mr. Eff's cousin moved about an hour away too, so we didn't totally move into a strange area.
The grandparents are only 3 hours away instead of 5 or 6! We took advantage of that and went to see them and a bunch of other family for Thanksgiving.
We're hoping to get a tree put up this weekend, and we are planning Isa's 7th birthday at the same time we're planning for the holidays. Isa and I took skating lessons before we left Durham and we are going to continue those in the new year. We are also going to our first college hockey game soon, a Chinese Lantern Festival, and a few other holiday events we've found.
It was a tough move and a lot happened in a short period of time, but it was all worth it!
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
My life is crazy
I don't post a lot about my personal life (or at all, really!) because I'm too busy living it for the most part. But sometimes it's crazy.
We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Tennessee with family. It was so great to spend time with my brother- and sister-in-law, their kids, and their family friend (who really hit it off with our daughter!). We don't see them often enough so I'm glad we took the opportunity to share a vacation with them.
While we were there I learned to kayak and discovered I really enjoy it. I think I might take some lessons or rent a kayak soon and go out on the river or one of the lakes around here.
I also had a nice breakfast with one of my best friends, which I don't get to do often enough since we're both so busy. Thankfully we can stay in touch online, too, but when I do go out with her I really enjoy and appreciate her company.
I went back to work yesterday after being out for a week. Someone had helpfully pulled my door closed. I remember pulling it almost closed, so everyone could see the vacation sign on it. I had plans to work my tail off to catch up, because we're down two, soon to be three people, and I was out for a week. Well, someone else probably accidentally pushed the lock in and when it got pulled closed, I was locked out of my office.
Until noon when a dedicated HR employee and the building handyman were able to completely destroy the knob.
So needless to say I didn't get half as much work done. I did go through some physical proofs that had come in, so at least I had something to do. I am also very grateful I could get it at all because I work from home Wednesdays and I did not want to go in on Wednesday to get my computer that was locked up in the office.
The thing is, I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids. They're both still pretty little and I don't want to miss anything. I value my Wednesdays a lot, even though I have to pry the kids off my lap or legs and tell them to go play with their dad most of the time. Even if one is sitting on my lap drooling on my page proofs as I flip through them.
And even though I just spent the whole week with them both, which was great, that also means that Rory got really attached to me. So he wasn't thrilled when I went back to work, and my game plan was to work a day, be home two days (one working, one not), then work in the office the other two so he had an easy transition back to me working.
So I was thrilled to get in the office but not so thrilled to get even further behind.
As a working mom, I always feel like I'm having to half-ass something. Work or parenthood or the house or myself. It's not a good feeling sometimes. But seeing my kids' faces light up when I am home makes it all worth it.
I am also very lucky to have their father, who is an awesome stay at home parent and who takes such great care of them. I keep telling myself the kids are growing up so fast, and all this other crap will still be here when they don't want Mama so much anymore. That makes everything else just sort of fade into the background (it also makes me sad, but that's another story).
We are all just doing the best we can and hoping it's good enough. It helps to remind yourself of that sometimes.
We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Tennessee with family. It was so great to spend time with my brother- and sister-in-law, their kids, and their family friend (who really hit it off with our daughter!). We don't see them often enough so I'm glad we took the opportunity to share a vacation with them.
While we were there I learned to kayak and discovered I really enjoy it. I think I might take some lessons or rent a kayak soon and go out on the river or one of the lakes around here.
I also had a nice breakfast with one of my best friends, which I don't get to do often enough since we're both so busy. Thankfully we can stay in touch online, too, but when I do go out with her I really enjoy and appreciate her company.
I went back to work yesterday after being out for a week. Someone had helpfully pulled my door closed. I remember pulling it almost closed, so everyone could see the vacation sign on it. I had plans to work my tail off to catch up, because we're down two, soon to be three people, and I was out for a week. Well, someone else probably accidentally pushed the lock in and when it got pulled closed, I was locked out of my office.
Until noon when a dedicated HR employee and the building handyman were able to completely destroy the knob.
So needless to say I didn't get half as much work done. I did go through some physical proofs that had come in, so at least I had something to do. I am also very grateful I could get it at all because I work from home Wednesdays and I did not want to go in on Wednesday to get my computer that was locked up in the office.
The thing is, I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids. They're both still pretty little and I don't want to miss anything. I value my Wednesdays a lot, even though I have to pry the kids off my lap or legs and tell them to go play with their dad most of the time. Even if one is sitting on my lap drooling on my page proofs as I flip through them.
And even though I just spent the whole week with them both, which was great, that also means that Rory got really attached to me. So he wasn't thrilled when I went back to work, and my game plan was to work a day, be home two days (one working, one not), then work in the office the other two so he had an easy transition back to me working.
So I was thrilled to get in the office but not so thrilled to get even further behind.
As a working mom, I always feel like I'm having to half-ass something. Work or parenthood or the house or myself. It's not a good feeling sometimes. But seeing my kids' faces light up when I am home makes it all worth it.
I am also very lucky to have their father, who is an awesome stay at home parent and who takes such great care of them. I keep telling myself the kids are growing up so fast, and all this other crap will still be here when they don't want Mama so much anymore. That makes everything else just sort of fade into the background (it also makes me sad, but that's another story).
We are all just doing the best we can and hoping it's good enough. It helps to remind yourself of that sometimes.
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