The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I stole this idea from my cousin, Jill.

I had every intention of posting here on a regular basis.

Now that we've moved.  Now that I'm not working.  I thought that it would be easy.  But it hasn't been.

I've sat down at this computer lots of times and looked at the blank screen with absolutely no inspiration.

None.

I thought I'd want to blog about the house.  The transition.  I thought I'd want to complain about the loneliness.  The frustrations.  The homesickness.  But I haven't.  Not that I haven't felt all of those things.  I have.

But mostly I've just been taking my kids to school, running errands, doing laundry, picking my kids up from school and running them to activities, fixing meals, helping with homework.  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  It's been a great gig.  And a lovely respite from the last six years.  But it hasn't felt blog-worthy.  Any of it.

But stuff has happened here.  My life is different than it was in August or even October (when I posted last), yet I haven't been able to muster up the creative juices to blog on any of it.

So here's a quick low-down on what's been going on with us.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

On Moving to Southern California:
The Good--Better half really likes his job.  The entire family likes living near the mountains and the ocean.  The weather is unbelievable.  Baseball can be played year-round.  Kids have found friends and activities.
The Bad--We miss our friends back in Kansas.  It's REALLY far and REALLY expensive to get back there.  Baseball can be played year-round.  :o)  I've loved baseball ever since my boys have been old enough to play it AND know which direction to run the bases.  But I wonder if I like it better when I get to miss it for a few months.
The Ugly--The loneliness.  And I feel loneliest in crowds.  At church.  At meetings.  At baseball games.  Where there are lots of people around and they all know each other, but they don't know me and I don't know them.  My children tell me I am WAY too interested in the personal lives of the morning talk show hosts on our local radio station, and I've got my computer set on the San Diego Zoo Pandacam for company.

On Our New House:
The Good--It's a great house.  Really.  I love that the bedrooms are all upstairs and the kids have their own bathroom.  I love that there is plenty of space for people to come visit (so come visit!).  It's beautifully landscaped.
The Bad--It could use a kitchen remodel.  Corb got a splinter in his foot from the horrible wood floor.  Not even kidding.
The Ugly--Utilities.  I about croaked.  I called the electric company and the water people thinking they'd made a huge mistake.  They laughed at me.

On Public Schools Here:
The Good--THEY. TEACH. WRITING!!!  As in, J just wrote a 3 page argumentative paper on the advantages of school uniforms in public school.  In sixth grade.  N is doing a HUGE paper on a problem in an African country and how to help solve it.  Since this is the first year that they are switching to Common Core, California is not administering most state assessment tests this year.  The teachers.  My kids have really good teachers.  I pretty much like them all.
The Bad--No money.  These schools constantly tell everyone that they have no money.  This is very likely true, as the state of California has no money.  Every school here thinks that you only have one child and that one child goes to their school.  So the Middle School thinks nothing of having an early morning practice that will render it impossible to get your High Schooler to school on time without Hermione Granger's Time Turner.
The Ugly--"donations."  Every extra-curricular activity and many curricular ones require "donations."  I know.  Those two words--require and donation--don't really go together.  But they do here.  I just love seeing on mass email reminders that "donations" for band ($150 for a year) or baseball ($175) for 5 games are "past due."  Cracks me up.  When it doesn't make me see red.  Entitlement is another "ugly" here.  The things that kids think they need, or worse, that their parents think they need.  I think that will be a constant battle to fight.

On Being a Stay at Home Mom:
The Good--I love feeling like I have time for my kids.  I'm not rushing to get them/take them/watch them so that I can cross something off of my list and move on to the next thing.
The Bad--I'm sure I'm not getting as much done around the house as I should be. I waste lots of time.
The Ugly--Most things are a lot more expensive here.

On Company:
The Good--People actually come visit us!  Our good friends two hours north have come several times.  They EVEN spent Thanksgiving with us.  Mik has been out.  Julie and Soph came.  My sister was here just last week, and we're supposed to have some visitors this weekend.  I love having people here.
The Bad--They leave.  And it always seems like the time they're here goes by way too fast!
The Ugly--Me, with tears pouring down my face in the airport parking lot after they leave.

On Marathon Training:
The Good--You couldn't ask for a better place to run.  The weather is almost always perfect.  It's got great hills.
The Bad--Surprisingly, it's been kind of hard to find time to fit it in.  That, plus minor injuries.
The Ugly--I'm worried that I'm severely behind and March 9 is either going to be the worst day of my life or my last or possibly both.

On Doing Whole30 With Better Half:
The Good--The food.  The food is normally really good.  Everything I've made, the kids and Better Half have requested I make again.  I feel better.  I don't have headaches in the morning.  I'm sleeping better.  And we're over half-way done! :o)
The Bad--Except for three times, I have cooked Every. Single. Meal. we've eaten since the morning of Jan. 6.  I'm not sure when the last time was that I've cooked so regularly.  Maybe never.  I've discovered that I don't like to cook all that much.  And I despise clean up.  So I've resorted to eating bizarre things.  My post-workout "meal" today was tuna fish out of a can and pumpkin out of a can.
The Ugly--The jar of no-bake cookies sitting on the counter that J made yesterday.

So that's it.  What we've been up to over the last few months.  Hopefully we will have something super-interesting or highly entertaining to write about very soon!