MOVING – An Adventure?

U-HAUL used to have a sign painted on the side of their trucks that read, “An adventure in moving.”

Now tell me, who needs an “adventure” when they’re moving? Relocating in and of itself is adventurous enough.

Take it from me, an habitual mover. For the first twelve years of my married life, I didn’t ever have to do Spring and Fall housecleaning – we just moved to a new home. In fact, I didn’t want to marry my hubby while he was in the military cause I didn’t want to be transferred all the time.

Then we got married, we lived in 11 houses in 13 years. That was after he got out of the USAF. The thing is, the longer you’re married (it’ll be 46 years in August), the more kids you have (we have four), and the more stuff you accumulate. And it’s not all your stuff. After a while you start storing everyone else’s belongings too.

The kids (who now have kids of their own) don’t have room for this, that or the other, “Mom, can we put this at your house till we have room for it?” Since there is no good reason not too, the answer is, “Of course.” On numerous occasions we’ve even “stored” other families in our house. But each time someone moves in or out, even if you’re not moving yourself, you still end up with all the same symptoms. In an effort to make everyone comfortable, even on a temporary basis, the whole house gets rearranged.

The kitchen is the worst, if I have oregano and an extra, and she has oregano and an extra, we then have 4 oreganos to put somewhere “handy” for when we run out. It’d be a l-o-n-g time till we used that much of any spice! Now multiply that times all the spices you spot in your kitchen cupboard. It’s tricky!

My youngest daughter is in the process of moving just ten minutes up the road from her current home, but to get those ten minutes away still requires packing every little knife, fork, spoon, potty seat, sweater, mitten, sock, pot, pan, photo album, blanket, stuffed animal, picture frame into a box that is generally either too big or too small. Box size, you know, can be corrected by the use of enough packing tape to go coast to coast – TWICE. The packing process is endless. Or so it seems at the time.

And this is the other thing regarding moving, once you have each darling little item snuggly, I might add, lovingly, slapped into a box, you then have the privilege of loading it into a truck. It then takes a quick ten minute jaunt up the street, where you take said box out of said truck, carry it into the house, and lovingly unwrap it, find a place to put it, and then decide what to do with all the packaging materials that you’ve accumulated that now appear as though a paper box factory threw up in your backyard.

I am so thankful for the diligence and industriousness I see in my kids. They are all workers and I’m proud of them. Right now my moving girl is like that bunny on the television ad that just keeps going and going and going. With an almost three year old and a five year old, wanting to know what is in every box, making dinosaurs jump enthusiastically off of cartons, “helping” tape up boxes, she still managed to sit down and do a meal plan for the next two weeks so we can know what items from the kitchen can be packed and what needs to remain till the last horn blows.

Yesterday, after helping all day with packing, I was in bed by 7. Yes, I said 7 o’clock. While she still had to make, serve and clean up supper for her family, get the kids to AWANA, go pick out paint for the new house, bring little people home and ready them for bed, and finally breathe. Her momma was sleeping soundly.

I don’t know where she keeps her cape and her phone booth, but I think I packed her blue shirt with the red “S” on it.

As an “empty nester” it is difficult to remember when I ever had that much energy. I think it’s like grace, you only get it when you need it.

You moms are to be congratulated and encouraged. Granted I’m 36 years older than she, but she looks like she’s going in fast forward, while my engine is stuck in reverse!