Wee wee wee all the way Home!

We made it, just like that last little piggy.  All the way to our new home in Beaverton, OR.  We did not travel by prairie schooner, Conestoga (or Calistoga as R. often says), covered wagon or on foot.  We had only about 97 miles to go, rather than a couple thousand.  And, it's a dang good thing, because we had a whole heck of a lot of stuff packed into that little house in the big woods.  We took 3 truckloads, had lots of help on both ends (Thank YOU everyone including neighbors, friends who took extra kids and family) and no babies were harmed in the operation.  In fact, everyone seems no worse for the wear, excepting maybe the grown-ups who are crossing their fingers that the hot tub guy who is coming tomorrow can really fix that thing.  We hope y'all will come and visit sometime, because for suburbia, our shady peak is a sweet spot.  We will miss our last sweet spot forever, I am sure.  So many friends and we have said, "Well, maybe you'll be back"  Right now, we are going to enjoy being all together as a family on a daily basis, having family dinners (they will save the world), going on new walks nearby, getting new library cards, and being from Aloha.  Aloha.

Insomnia

It is the middle of the night.  I have a nursling and I should be sleeping.  A boy the size of a giant is asleep in my bed, but the actual giant is in his 'other home' so there IS enough room for sleep, and yet, here I am, unable to sleep.  So, why not blog?  Don't answer that.  Tomorrow I will go on a journey to view what could possibly be the next home of the Cirque de Doggett.  This probably has a lot to do with why I am not sleeping.  My sister, the saint, has moved something like 15 times since she's been married.  She can probably do it in her sleep, she seems to do it with such grace.  Or maybe she just has enough sense to not tell me all the nail biting horrible bits.  So far, our house has been on the market for exactly one month, and we've had exactly one visitor.  The house-selling part has been what you might call slow here on Slow lane.  The circus performers have ditched their normal acts for laundry folding, bed making and bathroom scrubbing--not bad habits to hone.  The 'oh hell' room has had a serious attitude re-adjustment, and the lack of clutter has actually opened up room for creativity just like all those clutter hating neat freaks say it will.  I hate it when they're right.  And yet, and yet..... this is not the first of nights when two cups of chamomile and two hours in bed lead to me getting up to contemplate my life.  Am I worrying?  Maybe.  See that photo up there?  This is the oasis from the rest of the world to which I have come home for the past seven years.  I remember when we first moved in, and I would come home on hot summer days to the coolness of the forest and think, "Ahhhhh... I live in paradise."  I still think that.  And now I have a whole community of friends surrounding me, and they are just not being very easy to leave.  None of them suck, not a single one.  That's why this moving thing has been all hot air for so long.... two years!  Two years ago I was newly pregnant with baby #4 and wondering how the heck I could move away from all that good stuff.  I couldn't and I pretty much told my husband this.  Two years and one 15 month old later, and here we finally are at this crossroads.  Here is my list of things that I think about when I can't sleep:
How will I find quiet in a city when I sometimes have a hard time finding it here?  Oh yeah... it's inside. 
Are kids really as resilient as everyone says they are?
Will it be as easy to make friends as it has been here?
Will I find a place to buy raw milk and fresh eggs?
Will moving have the desired effect of more family time?
How will homeschooling look in a new place?
Will I be able to say no to the constant stream of interesting looking activities in a city that's so big?
Am I cool enough for Portland?
Will my brother and his wife get tired of being my only friends?
Is this really the right thing to do?

Oy vey.  My eyelids are getting droopy now.  maybe that means i can sleep.  i hope everyone else is getting a goodly amount of zzzzzz's tonight. 
In other news:  Sound of Music curtain/clothing project nearly finished.  Photos to follow
                         PhotoSunday postponement is not permanent.  Keep transfixed to this spot for news
                         Country Fair this weekend! 

Oyasumi Nasai