My Mind is Disappearing

 Claire

A whole week off of school has been so weird! She only went in one day for her testing and when I talked to her teacher I was reassured that Claire is doing well but needs to learn to focus on her school work. She is extra distracted here at home with our current situation, but I will work to make a dedicated space for schoolwork during the summer at our new home and both Claire and Shay will be working for a few hours every day. They worked really hard on school work when we made the reward of being able to play with the extra phone and watch a show so I will probably do something like that. She was sent home with one homework that was fun for her to do imagining that this week off was a vacation and packing, having an airplane ticket, and telling about it on a postcard. Now only one more week of school!

Shay

Shay was jealous of Claire's vacation homework so I tried my best to make her a suitcase and let her do the packing list and airplane ticket. This is the first time I made her try to form letters on her own instead of tracing them and I was very impressed with how well she did! It was a surprise because I thought she was just going to draw the pictures but she wrote the list instead and asked me to help with the pictures and some of the letters towards the end. She seemed happy that Claire didn't have to go to school, but was sad we had our last day at the gym this past Wednesday. I have one more girls' night on Monday, but they'll be going to bed and I'll be saying goodbye to all my new friends that I made through work. Her primary teacher told me she will be sad to lose Shay because of how wonderful she is in her class. I'm glad other people notice how amazing my daughter is.

Black and White Days

We went for a Bell family reunion in Richmond on Saturday and enjoyed the company of cousins, aunts, and uncles we haven't seen in a few years. It is a tradition to meet at Grandpa Bell's house to cook, watch the parade that is right in front of the house, and then eat dinner and mingle. Chris and I went pretty early because he was going to go shooting with his brother, but the range they tried to go to was too busy so they didn't get to. Claire and Shay had a lot of fun when some family showed up with some dogs and they could 'help' by holding the leash and filling their water bowls. There were no major disasters and Shay only whined about not getting some of the candy during the parade, and everything else was a great day.

Packing

All but 2 of the boxes I have are filled and I still have a lot of the kitchen, pantry, and toys to do! On top of the stress of packing, I broke my phone this past week and I'm without some of my contacts and feel more stressed. We did get our closing date for our house moved up to the 30th on the same day my phone broke so I was able to be happy about that...I'm very excited about a new adventure and to make this house a home. When I ask the girls if they are excited to move they finally say yes and seem to be happy about it instead of sad. Claire is convinced she will get her own room and I can't find a reason to say no because we will have a lot of space now. We have a home inspection tomorrow and orientation later in the week then things will be ready so we are continuing to pray that nothing will come up to ruin things.