My Head is Spinning

Last Sunday dh had an interview for an accounting job 2 1/2 hrs away. We really struggled with even applying for this one because it's 2 1/2 hrs away (also 2 1/2 hrs from my parents, and 2 hrs from dh's mom) and the girls were already struggling so much with the idea of moving locally, that we were afraid moving away from family & friends would really throw them for a loop. BUT . . . dh finally decided to go ahead & apply, and leave it in God's hands.

So, he had an interview last Sunday. It went really well. He left, feeling confident he could do the work and that he would enjoy working with the Treasurer. He also learned, during the interview, that an affiliated organization had a house we could probably rent. The Treasurer described it as "an old farmhouse, in the middle of nowhere" he also said it had just been rennovated & was only about 10 min. from the office. The rent was an amount we could swing too (I'd been looking online for houses to rent in that area & hadn't seen much in our price range other than apartments). So just on that description, it seemed like a big push from God to at least consider the possibilities up there (plenty of outside play room was something I've been hoping for with this move, but realized might not happen).

Tuesday evening the Treasurer called & asked dh if he could come for a 2nd interview on Thurs to meet some of the other people in the office (since the first interview was on Sunday, dh had only met the Treasurer) AND he asked dh to "bring the family along, so we can meet them" and also said that the farmhouse was, for sure, available, and that we could go see it while we were up there.

We got there Thursday to find out that something had come that the Treasurer had to take care of, so he introduced us to the President and left. The President, R, interviewed us (if you ever want to really test your multi-tasking skills, try quietly entertaining two hungry 5 yr olds who have been riding in a car for the past 2 1/2 hrs, while still paying enough attention to the adult conversation to intelligently answer the questions thrown your way), then he & his wife took us to lunch, and continued a more informal version of the interview.

After lunch he took us over to the farmhouse & left us there w/ someone who could let us in, and answer any questions & such. The farmhouse is small, which I expected, given the rent amount. But has all new flooring (though I was kind of hoping "old farmhouse" would equal old wood floors, and this is carpeted throughout), kitchen was totally redone, new windows throughout & new heating & a/c. The girls immediately fell in love with the "secret room" as they dubbed the small closet under the stairs (the door blends in w/ the wall, hence the "secret" aspect of it).

And it really is in the middle of nowhere. It sits kind of in the middle of a large piece of land, there are some other houses, also rented to employees (at least some of them), but only 1 is within sight of our house. There's a pond w/in sight (but far enough away to not be a concern for letting the kids play outside. And I THINK there's a creek farther down the hill (but we didn't walk down there). The farmhouse is literally at the "end of the road" so no traffic! The girls had a blast running around outside. I can have my clothesline. . .

So, now we're just waiting for dh to officially be offered the job. Based on the way both the Treasurer & President have talked, it seems likely that he'll get it, but it isn't official yet. If he does get it, he'll need to start asap, since the person he's replacing is retiring soon, and there needs to be some time for training. So he'll probably go ahead & start working, staying in a hotel during the week, and I'll work on getting packed and such asap.

At the moment, I'm making plans assuming he DOES have the job, though not doing anything that will be a problem if he doesn't, mostly just lots of planning going on in my head right now LOL. I'm struggling w/ what to do about my candle business (which I've known all along, that I might have to give it up if we moved to a house that didn't have room for it). This one MIGHT have room for it in the basement (I was totally kicking myself for not bringing a tape measure along on Thursday, once everything's finalized & dh is working up there I want to take the girls up for a day & take a thousand and one different measurements and really look at each room w/ measurements of my furniture in hand and figure out what will & won't fit.) but I think putting all the candle stuff down there would make the area (it's not huge, and the laundry & such is there too) feel claustrophobic. So I'm leaning toward doing a "going out of business sale", and selling down my stock that way, and then selling off the supplies, and being done with it. But giving it a couple days before I make a final decision either way (& obviously waiting to know for sure about the job).

Been working on refocusing how I'm going through room by room, but still going through & trying to do my final organizing/decluttering, but now instead of packing for "storage" and leaving stuff for "staging" and for living here indefinitely, I'm packing to move, or at least making sure things are grouped such that anyone can pack them for the move. Just leaving out stuff we'll need in the next few weeks (which, at the moment, I'm working in the 2 spare bedrooms, so not much we'll "need" in them LOL).

I'm also going to mostly stop even attempting to plan/homeschool until after the move. The girls are excited to help pack (they want to move as soon as they can, especially if Daddy's going to be starting right away, they don't like the idea of him being gone all week every week) and most of what we were doing, can be delayed a few weeks & it won't matter, so we'll go ahead & read the library books we have now, and keep doing memory verse, Bible reading, and Kindermusik practice, but that's it. If the girls really feel they need to do crafts or something, I've got plenty of craft stuff nicely sorted out now, so I can just grab something for them to do when the mood strikes.

I'm amazed that, after all the angst A has had these last few months about the mere IDEA of moving, she's now 100% on board. We've talked about how it's farther away from Mama & Papa so they might sometimes spend the night at our house when they come to visit, and when they spend the night, the girls will shave their beds with Mama & Papa and they (the girls) will sleep in their "Dora beds" (blow-up sleeping bags) on the floor. We've talked about how we'll be going to a new church. They had a brief moment of worry about not knowing anyone at a new church until I pointed out that when we go to a playground or similar they usually don't know anyone but by the time we leave they often are telling me all about the new friends they've made, so they can make new friends at a new church too. They WERE sad about not being here for VBS, even when I assured them that the new church would have one too (there are several churches in the area surely we can find a VBS LOL). But Mommy, Miss Angie's doing a COOKING VBS, will the new church do a COOKING VBS? Ummm . . . no, probably not. During the conversation, I told them that we MIGHT be able to come back and visit for the cooking VBS, but last night at skate night at the church I was helping w/ prep-work for VBS while the kids skated & A came over, asked what I was doing, and, when I said "helping get ready for VBS" she said "but we won't BE HERE for VBS!" so I'm thinking she, at least, is over the need to come back for the cooking VBS.