As of today, all of us have officially been together here in California for six months. Aside from the cat. She arrived two days later. Somehow.
Within those six months, we've experienced many things, enrolled in a school here, and the lady at the board office didn't even think we'd get into our neighborhood school, the one in walking distance from our house. The reason we bought the house. Luckily, that worked out. We've had to shop at new grocery stores, sign up for store cards, stores we'd never heard of. We've been to the shore, three times. We've barely even been to San Francisco yet. We've celebrated Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's all on California soil. We've painted the living room, The Redhead's room, and her bathroom. Well, at least I did. This house didn't have working light switches in most rooms, including overhead lights. They've resorted to lamps since the 60s. Mister Man rectified that. We still have a lot of things left to do and I still have items left to unpack, but we still live here nonetheless, and for the most part, we're settled.
Our large beast of a dog seems to be the one who has taken the change the hardest. This is odd because she always seemed to be the most laid back out of all of us. When we first brought her home to our house in Kansas, it took her less than five minutes to move in and she never questioned it. But our laid back Newfoundland has become a bit of a household bully since moving to California. She has constantly been destroying the cat's toys, she growls when we didn't even know she could do that, and she is often in trouble for pushing our entire bodies in the direction she wants us to go. We keep threatening to ship her back to Kansas in pieces. We expected the small one to be a pain, but we never thought the big one would be. The only way the small dog has changed is that she suddenly makes you pick her up to put her on our bed. She can jump...but she doesn't want to, at least not if you're around to pick her up. It's pathetic, and I often refuse to enable her, but Mister Man has a soft spot for the little brat.
The Redhead has settled in well at her school. She still reads almost every single night, at a much higher grade level than her actual grade. She has made friends with a sweet group of girls and her fourth grade teacher seems to be a lovely and grateful woman. I had feared this year because I have had her fourth grade teacher picked out since Kindergarten. In fact, I used to tell Mister Man we couldn't move until after fourth grade because we had to have Mrs. H first. Well....you see how that turned out. He feared this year too, as he feared he would hear all about not having Mrs. H. We've been fortunate though. The schools here are much different, and sometimes that's overwhelming, but I'm adjusting nonetheless, mostly because I have no other choice.
Not working has been easier than I thought it would be. I've been distracted enough and focused on projects and health. I loved my job very much, but being home with my family this past holiday season was enough to convince me not working isn't an entirely terrible thing. Of course, I know it's only a matter of time before someone makes some comment to me that sends me into a spiral where I can't wait to drown myself in work again. Other stay-at-home-mothers may know some of those comments by heart. "Since you have so much time on your hands." "You really should be working and doing more with yourself." "It must be so nice to not have anything to do all day." "What do you do with all that free time?" "When are you going back to work, again?" "You know, it's not healthy to just be at home." "You have so much more time than I do." The list goes on and on, and the desire to punch them does too. And unfortunately, those comments do bother me. They always have.
But we're all together again and I get to walk The Redhead to and from school every day. I help her with her homework again, bake her cookies, and laundry is always washed AND put away. I've cooked more in the past six months than I have in the last two years, easily. And I've definitely slept more in that time as well. And as much as I miss some of my friends and coworkers in Kansas, perhaps even some family, I must say that California is our home.
After all, I have absolutely no desire to move again.
Ever.
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