a new home: phase 2

Happy breakfaster; nice morning light

As March abruptly comes to an end, it finally feels as though things are starting to move forward in this seemingly never-ending pre-moving saga.  Most importantly, (in my mind, anyway), we signed a lease!  We now know for sure that we have a place to live, which makes all the rest really just details, right?

We have all started to kick into "moving mode" in our own ways.  For me and Clark, it is the boring, annoying minutia that you might expect - making lists; cancelling services and setting up new ones; figuring out about school districts and programs; booking moving vehicles, firming up dates.  We've even started to wrap our heads around starting to pack.  First order of business: tackling the ever-expanding monster in the basement that I have affectionately dubbed "Mount Boxmore".  This involves making sure no unwanted guests have moved in, and seeing how much bigger the pile must become in order to fit all of our worldly possessions.

Mount Boxmore, which has been slowly growing in the basement

Bonus basement shot, since I was down there anyway: our alarming basement cobwebs.  This is clearly one of the things I'll miss most dearly when we leave.  Laundry just won't be the same  in Kanata. Who doesn't love a tangle of cobwebs in his or her face every single day?

As you might imagine, the kids have also started to prepare.  Or, more accurately, Juniper has started to prepare, and Linden follows her lead whenever he feels like it.  One of the highlights of this past weekend, for instance, was a trip to IKEA, where we found these two, small, very orange little suitcases.  Juniper has been obsessing (like, seriously obsessing), about having a "small car rolling suitcase" for the epic road trip.  She was envisioning something that was convertible both as a rolling suitcase and a backpack, but immediately saw the potential in these little ones.  She and Linden happily brought them home, got out the trusty cloth markers, and proceed to add the essential personal embellishments:

Linden, mid-design process

Juniper, proudly displaying the (for now) finished product

Close-up

Juniper has also been making lists of her own, one of which came home with her school work earlier in the week, detailing what she feels to be the essentials. It was too cute not to share.  For those needing translation for the list itself, it reads: moving, packed, suitcase, house, room, driveway, bathroom, kitchen, water, food, fridge, freezer.

Juniper's "moving to Ottawa" list

The essentials.  Thankfully, they are mostly all checked off.

As we wind up to move, we're simultaneously winding down our lives on the Cape. For instance, I have now thrown my last piece of pottery at the Falmouth Art Centre pottery studio.  I'll be doing some final glazing this coming week, but my oh-so-amazing creative/mental health outlet is mostly now gone.  I am also left wondering how in the world I'm going to get all those pieces I've made over the past year to Ottawa! 

One of the many piles of pottery crammed into the various corners of our house.

This past week also marked the very last time we will be doing parent helping at the Woods Hole Child Centre.  In order to celebrate, we all went along - Clark took the morning off work, and Juniper skipped school.  Seeing as it was music month, we brought in a bevy of instruments, and proceeded to play musical games, give demos, and perform a little family concert.  It was a hoot!

mid-concert

Juniper spearheads a violin workshop

Linden, in charge of the calendar for one last time

Some serious block-building

Other than all the moving details ruling our lives right now, things have been mostly rolling along as usual.  We managed to get the bikes out this week, much to the delight of everyone involved.  This is, in fact, the topic of a short little segment on Juniper and Linden's newscast - check it out here. The Easter Bunny also just realized that Easter is just around the corner, and has been trying to organize things for the big day.  Consequently, a huge bag of mini eggs has come into the house, and then quickly disappeared.  This happens Every Single Year.  Those stupid mini eggs.  And with that, I think I need to go replace that bag.  Have a great week!