Talk about your bad timing...

I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd blogged. I guess moving will do that to a girl. Vacation was great. L and I flew to see my parents, sister, grandmothers and various other relatives that all live in the same city. Lots of fun. We went to the zoo, we did LOTS of shopping (I got the grandmother treatment and came home with a whole new work wardrobe), and did lots of visiting.
Then we came home to a new house with lots of boxes to unpack. So for 10 days we've been working on it as much as we can in the evenings and on Saturdays. (Sundays are, of course, a working day in our household.) Then, this past Wednesday, just after I've gotten out of bed, I start to head downstairs to get a clean towel out of the dryer... and I slip on the carpeted stairs... and I fall down about 5 steps to the landing... and break my big toe on my right foot.
Now if you've ever broken a toe, you know there's not a darned thing you can do about it except maybe buddy tape it and wear that big ugly velcro shoe for a few weeks. I have crutches, but the doc said I can do whatever doesn't hurt, so it's easier to walk on the side of my foot than use them. Yes, I'm driving. I'm trying not to walk too much, not because it hurts my toe, but because it hurts the outside edge of my foot that I have to walk on. Can I do much unpacking? Let's just say that I don't want to see P have an aneurysm.
However, he's been a maniac getting things done today. We (he-I just supervised) got more done today than in the entire past week. I can't tell you how much cardboard and packing paper we've recycled today alone. We can finally eat at our kitchen table. The living room is almost livable. Props to L too, usually a very underfoot preschooler, she played very sweetly in her room for most of the day and stayed out of the way.
Now I just have to write a sermon... sigh.

Holy Week?

It seem to me that Holy Week is often the least holy week of all for us pastors. We go crazy trying to plan as many as 5 services for some (I'm planning 3.5) and making sure someone ordered palms, someone has the fabric to drape the cross, maybe you're doing a tenebrae? someone's gotta know how to work the lights. Got baptisms and/or communion on Easter? Gotta plan for those. It's enough to make a girl take the name of the Lord in vain once or twice, I tell ya.
Our church does community Holy Week services with two other churches in town. We switch out locations and who is doing the preaching, though those do not coincide (i.e.- the G.F. service is at our church, I am in charge of the bulletins, but I am not preaching) So, I have no idea what the other pastor is preaching on (yes, I've asked) and I have to prepare the rest of the service around that. I fully intend to pester him again on Monday or Tuesday so I can get those bulletins done ahead and move on to Easter. Turns out our church always hosts Easter sunrise since we have the largest and prettiest outdoor property. Also turns out that I'm preaching for that. 7 a.m. Have I ever told you how much NOT of a morning person I am? Until we move at the end of the month, I have to drive half an hour to get to the church. That means I have to leave by about 6:15. I don't even get up by 6:15 most days. I'm going to have to be up by about 5 to get ready. I really think this must be some sort of divine punishment for something, though I know not what. So what I really want to know is, how tacky is it to give a sermon with a cup of Starbuck's in one hand?

Incomplete

You know how things are when your life is just out of balance? That's how it's been around here. See, if you're keeping up with things, you know that P is down in Huge Southern City and we're up here in a whole other state. And it's not that things are going bad per se, but they're just a little out of whack.
My theory is that it's because 1) our family is not all together, 2) we're not surrounded by our familiar things (they're all in storage until we find a house), 3) we are in limbo with P's finding a job, causing at least some anxiety, 4) our routines are completely, entirely new and still a little unfamiliar to our bodies, 5) we are with unfamiliar people in unfamiliar places doing unfamiliar things.
All of these things and more sort of tie together, causing a circular pattern of distress to our minds and bodies. I can't speak to the mind of L, but she's more clingy, she's wanting me to do simple things for her that she's done on her own plenty of times before, and there are other signs that only a mom would notice.
Of course, there are the physical illnesses we've contended with. With her first foray into preschool, she came home with a terrible cold, double conjunctivitis and a double ear infection-taking not less than 2 antibiotic shots and an oral medication to clear up-after the doctor assures me that she doesn't give antibiotics unless it's seriously needed. I guess it was pretty serious.
Me, well, other than sharing the horrendous cold and then catching the pink eye, well, I just seem sluggish. I feel in a perpetual fog. Lack of sleep is part of it, a big part. Some of it is getting used to a new job and a new schedule. I'm sure there are other factors that, being somewhat foggy, I'm not thinking of at the moment.
Our bodies are just out of whack. Tummies seems to be cranky a little more I've noticed, for us both. I'm perpetually stuffy and headache-y and will probably have to suck it up and go find an allergist soon.
Even the animals seem off. I know they don't like P being gone. The dog especially. She does naughty things on the carpet that let me know this. Not in the last couple of days though, knock on wood. The cats well, they are just a little more needy, if that's possible.
Now you may be saying, but R, you said things weren't so bad, and that sounds bad indeed! It's not really, it's tough, especially without P to take some of the slack with L, but I love the church people I'm working with, and they've been wonderful to us both. I like the area we're in; I like the preschool L is in; I even like both the pediatrician and family doctor I had to find on short notice. I just can't wait for things to come back into alignment. P here, job secured, home moved into, stuff unpacked, child well, sleep adjusted. I'm just sure that things will be better when things are the way they should be as far as us being together as a family and being surrounded by our familiar and beloved belongings in a place that is our own.