We were out of commission for over a week in the Chase house. Something bit almost all of us and caused some major damage in the toilet department. Actually, because two of our kids are pretty little, it wasn’t really the toilet department so much as the bed covering department. Lots of laundry. Lots of sleepless nights filled with the shooting out of bed and running toward the crying child who is about to toss his cookies for the thirteenth time of the night. Almost all of us got it. Every three days. And it was a long bug too, that sucked the normal personalities out of two of my kids for days and made my thirty two pound five year old lose a pound–a pound that he definitely needed to hang on to.

To make matters worse, on the day that I was the one in bed with the bug was the day that I found out my grandpa passed away. Just a tough week overall.

This week seems promising. Everyone is back to their normal selves. Today it’s supposed to go above fifty degrees for the first time since last year, and I have snapped out of my few days of uncharacteristic behavior. I think my mourning was stuffed up inside of me like I tend to do and it came out a couple of days after we buried my grandpa. Maybe that’s normal, I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just a tendency of a person who likes to keep her emotions in check and doesn’t usually wear them on her sleeve. Sometimes they creep up on you like a pot of boiling noodle water that has quietly been climbing the sides, ready to gush over the side. That was me yesterday. Gushing bubbly boiling noodle water. One of my friends brought me over a cheery bouquet of yellow gerber daisies as a little pick me up from a bunch of my other friends, and they brightened my mood as they smiled at me from their vase. And today, the sun is possibly going to peek out for a time, so that’s a happy day as good as any, if you ask me.

News in the moving world–well, not much has gotten done. We have a tiny stack of boxes packed in the corner of our kitchen, and that’s pretty much as far as we have gotten. I can’t remember what we’ve done in the past. We are about 3.5 weeks away from our move date. Still seems like lots of time, right?  I hope . . .

I know it’s practical to pack up my decorations. My pictures hanging on the walls, my shelves with my little bits of things here and there that aren’t necessary for life to go on. But I do love them so much. Some of you who know me know that when we move, that’s one of the first things I do–hang things up. It makes a house a home. And even if I’m not sure I’m going to keep it in that exact spot, it’s something to brighten the wall–to give it life and a purpose. And to make me smile when I look at it. So to take down my things is like taking little bits of my heart. I supposed I will have to man up and just do it. It will be nice to get some of that sort of packing out of the way!