In Three Months

 Iz told me this is her "crime hat".  She's a comic genius.

What have I been doing in the last three months?  Uh...
Part of me thinks, Lots of nothin'! and the other part of me can't even begin to summarize all the everything that's been going on.  Mostly, the mundane running around typical of a family of five.  But also the less mundane things that occasionally pop in the lives of families that find their lives having radically changed in the last year.  And then the craziness that seems somehow specific to our family.  I will spare you any drama.  Let's say it's been, by turns, exhausting, exciting and at times, seemingly more than I could handle, but look:  I'm still here!
School:  My princess E did a swift turn around, from being far behind a month after our move to being completely caught up three months later.  Little Iz will start Kindergarten in the fall, and I finished Spring Semester with straight As.  It was grueling.  Not one specific aspect, but the total experience.  As they say, all's well....

It's been expensive going to school.  The campus is on the way to nothing nearby and I do not have my own car.  Textbooks, even used, are ridiculously expensive.   I feel as if I should make something extravagant out of the ones I could not sell, like a huge paper sculpture.   But I really don't need any more projects giving me looks when I neglect them.  I also have the urge to burn them.  Though I don't think I could bring myself to do so.

What else, what else?  Despite all my misgivings about yard sales, I've decided to have one the first weekend of July.  I am just not as much of a people person as I should be, and also, if no one wants my yard sale stuff, I do not look forward to taking any of it to second hand stores....  Because it's going one way or another.  I've told my kids they can buy a single new toy if they make enough to pay for it.  This inspired them each to give away her sister's toys.  So, it's been a challenge.   This is all part of our paring down our possessions.  So many things!  So many really nice things that never get played with.