T minus 2 days

I discovered today that I've arrived.


....at something.


My mother grew up in a family of eight kids in a small house--small as in, she shared a room full of bunk beds with her five brothers and someone had to sit in the windowsill when the whole family gathered around the table.


Long before the days of carseats or even seatbelts, the family travelled in a mere station wagon, shifting to fill in the space if a child was ever left, say, at a gas station (hypothetically).


My Grandpa was notorious for forgetting the names of his children, or even how many he had.


The family was full of love, however, and even managed to eke out vacations with extended family.


On one occasion, the kids' uncle, who was a Catholic priest, was driving the car full of kids when they stopped for a potty break.  As the door opened and the kids started pouring out, one after another, the gas station attendant's jaw dropped and he looked at the priest and drawled, "Gee, Mistah...Is all them yours?"

We'll miss our cherry trees.

I gave up on school this week, what with the last-minute house finishing and the packing of massive amounts of stuff.


Instead, we've been having lots of together time:  packing,

running load after load of donations to the Salvation Army, packing,

getting groceries to tide us over til the move,

and packing.

Since all our food is packed up

I took the kids out to Hardee's this morning (breakfast of champions, right there).

And while I was there with them, an older gentleman who had been playing peek-a-boo with Caleb finally came over and said to me, "Is all them yours?"

It's the circle of life.