The Gift of Time

Life is unexpected. 

Sometimes life does not hand you what you THINK you need, but rather what it KNOWS you need. 

When we moved to Maine in late October of last year, we did so out of love for our beautiful little girl. 
As a highly sensitive child, we knew that she would never thrive in a classroom with 30-35 other young minds with only one teacher. Luckily, we had the absolute best Pediatrician, who had helped to open my eyes to the world of highly sensitive children, and she agreed with our decision to not send her to a Kindergarten that would completely overwhelm her. However, she also pushed for us to enroll her in some form of schooling, as she knew that that was exactly what she needed. 
It was an extremely difficult decision to pack up our lives and move to an unknown area, just so Sarah could start her public schooling journey within a small town school system. New state, new apartment, new school - no cousins close by that were as close as brothers and sisters, no sense of normalcy for any of us. 
We did so with the hope that a potential job prospect for my husband would fall into place and life would continue on as we had known in Massachusetts. Instead, we were shown that life does not follow a plan. 

image courtesy of Zazzle

Instead, we were given the gift of the unknown, and while it has, at times, been extremely stressful with not knowing what is beyond the next bend, it also feels like we were handed one of the greatest gifts we could have been given. 

The gift of time. 
Time alone with my husband, which we had not had since before Boomba was born. 
Time alone for my husband and daughter to bond while I was working part time in the evenings. 
Time alone for Boomba and I, while my husband works every weekend. 
Time for us to figure out our new normal, here in Maine. 

Sometimes life gives us not what we think we need, but what we didn't even know we needed.  

Our Maine Priority

I am not a city girl.

For as long as I can remember, I have craved the slow lifestyle of a country setting. When it was time to go to college, I could not run fast enough from my birth city, with it's population of nearly 95,000 residents and I vowed to never return. Well, we all know how life has a way of messing up your best-laid plans, and in 2008 we found ourselves living once again in the metropolis of the big city.

When Sarah joined our family in August of 2009, we vowed to ourselves that we would not be in the city when she started Kindergarten.
Fast forward 5 years (because seriously, it felt like it went by in a minute) and there we were.
A change needed to happen.

We've been Maine residents now for a little over a week. Our small town has just over 6,000 residents. It's wonderful. Most importantly, it's the absolute best place to grow together as a family.
We took some risks moving to another state, and it won't be easy, but our main priority is Sarah, and she will flourish here. Go Team!

And then this happened...

Some days, being a stay at home mom is super easy. It's all rainbows and unicorns and cotton candy.

Today was not one of those days.

And then this happened...

And well, now I know why today was not one of the easy days.

"Forced" Family Fun

This past weekend was all about family.
Saturday was a super lazy day. I was so excited to catch up on some scrapbooking, which was long overdue.
After lunch, Steve decided to try to introduce Boomba to the world of Star Wars. I was very hesitant that she would make it through the first one (which is now the 4th one, I think) but she did great! She asked a million questions throughout, but Steve answered all of them and she really seemed to be enjoying it. Imagine my surprise when it finished and she asked if she could watch the next one, "the one with Yoda." Thus, our Star Wars marathon began.
She succeeded in watching A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. She only seemed upset once, when Yoda first appeared on the screen, but she just held my hand and kept watching. When the movies were done, I asked her why he had upset her, and she replied that she just didn't think his voice was going to sound like that. I joked that he sounded a little bit like Kermit the Frog, and she thought about that for a minute and agreed, so then it was all good. Her favorite character? Darth Vader...a.k.a. Dark Vader. Episodes 1 through 3 will be following, once we prep her for the scary bad guys in those.

iPhone cake by ME

Sunday we held a birthday party for our niece, who is visiting for the summer from Virginia. Her birthday is in May, but we celebrate it every summer, since we can't be with her on the actual day. Although my sister and 2 sisters-in-law are all seasoned cake decorators, having done their own children's cakes for years, I decided to be brave and volunteer to make the cake. Although it took me quite a bit of time, and multiple calls to sisters for tips and assurances, I'm pretty proud of how it came out. Making the frosting from scratch was the biggest challenge, but now I will feel that much more confident when I make Boomba's cake in 2 1/2 weeks.
Plus, my niece liked it, which made it worth every new grey hair on my head!
This weekend I felt like I was "winning."

Beanie Boo Bliss

Photo courtesy of Ty.com

Today's adventures took us to McDonalds, to get a treat in the form of a Happy Meal. It's not something we do very much at all, but there was good reason to today....Beanie Boos. 

Boomba is obsessed with Ty Beanie Boos. 

These little mini versions are adorable and the perfect size to accessorize her birthday cake in a few weeks, so how could I say no?

Luckily she had worn her red cowboy boots and had socks on, because she was desperate to play in the Playplace playground. There were no other kids around and she dove in with gusto and had a great time...for approximately 5 minutes. I saw her little face fall as 2 little girls approached to join in on the fun, and she stopped immediately and ran over to where I was and held my hand. 
As with most Highly Sensitive Children, she has a fear of the unknown and generally shuts down when there are strangers in her 3 foot radius. I held her hand and told her it was okay, but there she sat while they played and I felt her relax as their dad came in to tell them it was time for lunch. 
Some days are better than others for the fear, and today wasn't so bad. Plus, I know that the hand-holding days are fleeting, so I'll take them any way I can. 

Rainy days

Today was the kind of rainy day that makes you not want to get out of bed, just stay snuggled in and recharge your batteries. 

Walking in the rain

Alas, today was also Wednesday, which means Sarah has her summer reading group at the library and staying in bed was definitely not permitted. This was our second week of the library reading program. Last week was cool - daddy was on vacation and got to come with us and we made homemade butter (with daddy and I taking turns shaking the little plastic container of heavy cream for 15 minutes.) 
Today was not as cool because daddy is back to work, and we did not do something as cool as making homemade butter for our craft. Today we made Albert Einstein glasses out of paper. Not cool. (According to the almost 5 year old)

Baby H & Alecia

Today was also the kind of day to make popcorn and watch Barbie movies with our babies...just because. 
It was a good day.