Lists, Cabins, Summer Clothes, Library Downloads, and Cross-Country Moves

So, we’ve been pretty busy these past couple of weeks (hence my lack of posts for the last little while). When we got back from Rochester I made a list that is over a page long (typed) of things to do before we move. The things on the list range in importance from faxing signed doctor’s and dentist’s notes to Kolby’s kindergarten in Rochester to backing up my computer to finding church shoes for Eli and Isaac to picking up some hair gel and diapers and wipes from the store. But, needless to say, all of the things on the list need to get done. So, we’ve been staying very busy trying to get lots of things crossed off the list (especially before Michael starts his last rotation, surgery, in a week or so), but we’ve also been finding time to fit in as much fun as possible before things get busy again with this next rotation. We enjoyed going with the Owens to their cabin, and are looking forward to a trip to San Diego during Michael’s last vacation week of this year. This is the boys’ last week of preschool. It is officially spring here now, so I took quite a bit of time a week or so ago switching out all the boys’ winter clothes for the summer clothes. Having all boys and having them all so close together, it can be a little challenging to make sure I have enough of each clothing item for each boy in the right sizes, and keeping track of who’s clothes are who’s can be even more difficult, especially since the older boys are now starting to overlap on the sizes of some of their clothes. Last winter I decided to make little iron-on labels with the first letter of each of their names to go on the clothes tags so the boys could all tell their clothes apart, which I hoped would allow them to find their own clothes and get dressed more independently. It turned out to be a good system, except for the fact that the labels didn’t stay on a few of the clothes after being washed a few times, and it took a lot of initial work to get them all labeled. This season I decided on a different approach: I made sure that we have enough clothes for each boy in the correct sizes, and I told the boys that they are all sharing clothes. So, if some of Eli’s shorts get put away in Camden’s drawer, oh well, Eli can just go look in his brothers’ drawer if he runs out of shorts before we do laundry that week. As long as Kolby and Courtland don’t try to share, I think it will work out ok. It has worked fine so far, so that’s good. It was kind of hard for me to allow the clothes to be less organized, but it’s actually a good thing – saves me the time of labeling all of them. I am realizing more and more as I have more kids and they get older, that I just need to let go of things that don’t really matter, and I’m getting better at that. Besides, I’ve got plenty of things that I have to worry about besides labeling tiny t-shirts. Well, it’s late and I need to get to bed. I was just waiting for some downloads to finish on the internet so I could shut the computer down, and they’re probably done by now. Did you know you can go online to your library’s website and download audio books to you computer or I-pod and then the books just automatically get deleted after 21 days. Pretty cool, huh? (At least they have that at our library). We plan to take advantage of that new find for our long drive to New York next month! Can you believe we move next month? We just reserved the moving truck today. I am not looking forward to the packing or the driving across the country with five small children, but I am really looking forward to getting into our new house and making it our own. Well, good night.