Moving with a Toddler, 7 Years Later… By: Lori Loesch
Hello once again audience! To coin a phrase from one of Faith’s UTUBE account people, that play MineCraft. Do I have an audience? I hope so. I know that time constraints keep me from posting to my fellow Bloggers. So, I hope I’m not writing in vain. The experience is what I’m going for!
I felt displaced for 7 years:
I lived at my other address for more than 20 years. My husband’s grandfather built the small farm house in 1905. There was so much history and I love history. Everything had a place and was in that place. Not so much at my new house! I loved my other house. There were things I wanted to change, but it was my place. I identified with it, and it with me.
There was a large flower garden in front of our house, and a crossroads, a 4 way stop sign. Traffic would be backed up in front and at the side of my house, at the start of the work day and at the end of it…And at break time…and at dinner time…and ALL the time!
Oh, the flower garden! My darling husbands idea. He wanted to continue in his grandmother’s tradition by planting a large flower garden. At that house were, rose bushes that were 50 years old, that Naomi had planted. Peonies’, Iris’, all kinds of bushes and trees and flowers. It had history, and I freakin’ love history, to insert a 9 near old’s adjective! People would stop and ask about the sign above our garage that my husband’s grandfather made, or to ask about certain flowers I had growing. It was an everyday affair to have neighbors stopping to chat or holler out the window or honk or wave. People told me that sitting at the stop sign was made better because of the lovely flowers that were growing all spring, summer and fall. That made me feel good. I was finally giving back.
We moved to our new larger home on 101 acres of land. Yea! My dream come true…not so fast! I had a toddler. My daughter, Faith Ana, and a son in 9th grade. Culture shock: food delivery from many restaurants, at our old house, to no delivery and only one take out pizza place.
When I had my daughter at age 42 and a son 11 years her senior, I declared to my family that I wasn’t going to cook dinner, as I did with my first born. And I didn’t. I didn’t cook, I didn’t clean, I took care of my baby and someone else took care of the food preparation, house cleaning and lawn mowing, which I took care of before I became pregnant. I enjoyed all of it.
Looking back, because hind sight is usually 40/40, we were unrealistic to think that we would be able to “do it yourself ” here in the country. I would cook, clean and our son would mow the acres and acres of grass and meadow. Our other house had a little plot of grass that we hired someone to cut. It makes me laugh now to think what frame of mind we were in.
Everything, and I do mean it seemed like everything, was beeping and buzzing at me, telling me what to do and when to do it! My house had nothing from the old house. I wanted to bring our older refrigerator along, but was forbidden, by my son. All new, no old. Well, I was 42, not so young, and I wasn’t ready to be thrust into a new world where everything was computerized, and beeped at me. Nothing had a physical button that turned. I do not like noise. OH the noise, noise, noise, noise, to quote the Grinch. I was, to put it mildly, having a melt down, daily. Running after a toddler, new school for her, new school for our son. So much needed to be taken care of. And we were going to live: Green Acres, Farm Living is the Life for Me! Ha ha ha!!! And at our ages?! My husband is 7 years older than I am.
Alas, I find myself 7 years later… Faith is not a toddler that I must keep my eye on, but a mature, responsible, soon to be 10 year old. And she’s great and I love her! And because I no longer need to hover over her, I have had time to realize that, I never moved into, settled into our new house.
IDK, to insert a 21 year old’s sentence, but I’m ready to take on a flower garden, and make this house my and my families, home. I’m ready to look at art hanging from the walls. I didn’t permit anyone to put anything, on the walls! You should have seen our last house! I picked the most beautiful paint colors and I didn’t want anything but wall paint art, to look at. It’s time to unbox the pictures from the old house and unbox my jewelry. I cannot believe I haven’t put my jewelry in order!! 7 years and still they are mostly boxed up, hidden from view, and wear.
It’s time to get rid of clutter. Too many toddler toys, books and the like, that need to find a new home, so that we can make room on the book shelf for books my daughter reads now. Wait! No one reads books anymore! It’s time to take her bedroom, from a little toddler’s, baby pink room, into a tween’s “all grown up”, purple room. No more frilly hang y things that I so love! DOWN with the flowery netted thingy that hangs over her bed! Sniffle, sniffle, said I!
Faith will start 5th grade, a new middle school, with an influx of other kids, ideas, and endeavors. And so it is, I embrace the spring time, with a new attitude, and I’m looking up and forward. Boy, I hope I can keep this attitude!
place. Ahhh…
Tags: country living, displaced, Moving, new attitude, toddler, tween's room color
