I really LOVE our current two-bedroom. If there were any way to make it work (and trust me, I’ve tried), I would stay here for years and years. But we have had a lot of issues with our kids sharing a room. The problem is, both of our kids are up throughout the night. So I have to jump up and grab the fussing child before waking up the other child (creating FUSSING CHILDREN TIMES TWO…why the caps you ask? Because TWO fussers is LOUD at 4am).
I usually then end up with one child in bed with me for 2/3 of the night. I think I have a permanent knee mark in the middle of my back. And since I am juggling motherhood, full time graduate work, multiple teaching and research jobs, and managing a website (two if you count this one)–it’s simply impossible to get through this living on the 4 max hours of sleep I get each night. Some can do it, but I.am.going.crazy. and my sweet kids deserve a non-crazy Mama.
My grandma tells me stories of when she had all three of her kids, all under 4, just 18 months apart, sharing a room. One child even slept in an opened drawer of a dresser. And she survived it with no horror stories. She says it to give me inspiration, and it does, but I think my grandma has some magic potion because even my wild beast children are tamed in her presence.
So before you give me your loving advice on how to somehow do it, let me just say, I’ve tried it ALL, aside from having my child sleep in our BATHROOM (and yes, someone recommended that). And I know there are some super-hero Moms who thrive under similar or more challenging conditions and they do it with gusto—and my sparkly, admiring eyes gaze at them in wonder. I wish I could be that, but I’m not. Right now I just need loving support and pats on the back for making a big decision that took a lot of thought (hours spent pondering while a knee was drilling my middle spine). Our renewal notice also just showed up and they hiked things up enough to drive this sleep-deprived woman out of here.
I had been looking at houses for several months now, but they were just too expensive. I recently found a house that fit our budget perfectly and definitely gave us more bang for the buck than our apartment. It is b-e-a-utiful! It’s a wonderful THREE bedroom and it has so much wonderful light in it.
They are replacing the oven. Yay!
I love the windows!
So bright!
Curse my bad lighting. It isn’t doing this best-part-of-our house justice. This big window in our kitchen lightens up the whole place! I’m not used to having a window in my kitchen.
I am so excited that the garage is ATTACHED and there is a back yard. For all ya moms who have lived with no back yard or attached garage you probably get my excitement…for anyone else, you probably think I am a weirdo for getting giddy cakes over that.
I did a great job transforming my life when we moved a year ago. We paired down much of our belongings and were so much happier…but we could do better. I wasn’t as organized here as I wanted to be. So with this move, we have a month to move and I am slowly moving stuff over there. But nothing goes over there unless there is a designated place for it and I must be the one to look everything over to determine if we need to keep it (my hubby tends to get emotionally attached to nearly everything–works fine in general, since he’s attached to me, but not with decluttering). The nice thing about moving after a year is that I KNOW what has been used and what hasn’t. If we didn’t use it this year, it gets the boot.
While this new home is in our budget, we do still want to put extra money towards savings and credit cards, so in order to make this work, we want to simplify our lives even more. We don’t buy too much stuff, but we go out to eat several times a week. So I am looking for good, quick meals.
I’d love to hear your tips! I NEVER know what to make for dinner, so I’d love your go-to meals (that aren’t frozen corndogs or chicken nuggets).
Tara, it looks great! I hope you all find some peace in your new place. You may not feel like it, but you are very inspirational to people reading your posts.
As far as food goes, there are some simple things you can do to save time. For example, brown a bunch of ground beef at once and then freeze. Later on you can add taco seasoning and make tacos or fajitas, you can use the beef in a casserole or to make chili. Also, if you are making something like a soup, casserole, meatloaf, etc., double your recipe and freeze half of it for later. You can also do this with something like chicken breasts. Cook up extra and down the line you can defrost and cube it for a salad or some other recipe.
Oh, the house is BEAUTIFUL!!! (And oh man, I ABSOLUTELY understand the attached garage and backyard thing!! But even more than that, that FRIDGE! And you get a new stove???? JEALOUS! We’re thinking of asking if the owner will split the cost of a new one if we renew our lease again, it’s ANCIENT! I’m not sure he’ll go for it, but hubby wants to try to make it happen!) And you’re right, moving will be the perfect time to evaluate if it’s been used recently or not! Best of luck!!!
Oh my goodness, I would LOVE all those windows (not to mention the attached garage and back yard!!!) – I thrive on sunshine, so as long as there would be a way to cover all the windows for blocking out heat and cold when needed, I’d love the option to bask in sunshine streaming through windows once in a while
Love your comment about your hubby being attached to you – that’s so great! I wish you all the best with this move – and don’t feel bad if anybody judges you for needing separate rooms for your kiddos. I’m sure you’ve thought and prayed long and hard about this. Trust your own judgment! I would love the chance to move slowly over a month – it would be the perfect way to de-clutter and organize all my stuff!!! I’ll email you some meal ideas, too.
I totally understand your giddy excitement over the attached garage and backyard–I felt the same way when we moved last year! And I had to laugh over your husband holding on to stuff…mine does that too. When we were sorting through stuff after we got married to make everything fit in our apartment I just about lost it when he picked up something and said, affectionately, “Awww, it’s my second baby towel.” SECOND??? Who even has their first? And he was not only the third of 5 kids, he was the second boy. His mom should have thrown away everything and regretted it later, like the rest of us. Sheesh!
For recipes, my favorite website is allrecipes.com. If you hear someone mention a recipe, like Corn Chowder, and wonder how to make it, just type it in and up come tons of recipes! Pick one that looks good. I usually pick one that has 4 or 5 stars and has been rated by the most people. Then I read the first few reviews to find out the quirks about the recipe that eveyone else already figured out. Because of that, everything almost always turns out perfect. There is also a link on the home page called “Ingredients” that lets you enter in a few ingredients you want to get rid of and tells you recipes you could make with them. Brilliant! Helps me use up food before it goes bad. Or, if I’ve bought a lot of something because it was on sale it gives me new ideas for using it.