All's Quiet on the Eastern Coast

The blog has been pretty quiet for the past couple of weeks. That's because life has been extremely busy for the past few weeks, leaving little to no free time for hobbies like blogging, reading, or sleeping. Here's what's been preventing blog updates.

We had a massive yard sale on March 19th to get rid of a lot of stuff that's been accumulating in the house. Granny came to visit and did the massive amount of work needed to make this possible. Thanks, Granny! We brought in a good bit of money and have a bunch of items posted on Craig's List that didn't sell, which are slowly selling every couple of days.

The yard sale wasn't just to get rid of clutter. It was also a preemptive strike before our big move to England this summer. My wife took an assignment that will have us in the Yorkshire area for the next three years starting in late June (at least, that's when we think we are leaving--more on that in a future blog post). We had a big, two-day meeting that went over all the paperwork and steps to move. That meant that Terri and Patricia and Sharon and Amy and Brian all got to babysit Jacob and Lucy over those two days. Thanks to you all and to everyone else from playgroup who volunteered to help! Many more babysitting opportunities will come up in the next months, I am sure.

Things were just returning to normal last week when tragedy struck our home. Jacob fell down our stairs and broke his collar bone! Neither of us parents saw it happen. He was carrying down some stuff and must have misstepped. Usually when he has a fall he is shaken up but shakes it off pretty quickly after watching a video on the computer. This time the video didn't do the trick. We called the doctor's office and decided to head to the emergency room. After a long time, an x-ray, and a consultation, Jacob came home with a sling on his arm and a four-week recuperation prognosis. A follow-up visit is scheduled for the end of this week with an orthopedist.

It's been really tough on our zombie overlord to have a broken collar bone. His mood swings rapidly and unpredictably. This morning we were about to leave for the grocery store when he demanded a toy from the attic (which is a sort of "lending library" so our house is less overrun by the toys). He went into total meltdown until I complied. Luckily, he calmed down by the time we got to the store. I can't blame him, though. It's tough not being able to climb and jump like he used to. I hope he recovers soon.

Sleep has definitely become a premium item in our household. Jacob has already summoned me three times as I've tried to finish this blog! I hope to write more soon.