It's been dead around here!
Mostly because I've felt dead. We were hit with a major life bomb over the summer and it rocked my world in more ways than I care to admit. We ended up moving our family from Kansas City out to a teeny tiny town in Missouri. Don't ask me how it happened... I still don't have an answer to that question.
FUN times folks, fun times.
I don't know if it happened a little too quickly for my tastes, or if it was the shell-shock of going from a nice comfy home in a metro area to a massive fixer upper undertaking in the middle of nowhere but I still haven't completely wrapped my head around the changes our family is experiencing several months later. Clearly I stink at dealing with change.
One of the biggest areas of change for me personally has been the extreme lack of things to do. This is a small town people. There isn't much to occupy your time unless you own a horse or a tractor.
I am often reminded of when the small town I lived in during college made the leap from a normal Walmart to a SUPERcenter...the largest one in Kansas even( you know, for that week or so until they finished another store somewhere else in the state)...it was ridiculous. The cool kids would go to Walmart for kicks for the longest time. They even had trolleys that would cart your lazy butt from the parking lot to the doors for about a month or so. It was a big deal. Self check-outs were the best thing to hit town since sliced bread. Seriously. I will admit that it was very enjoyable to watch people try to figure out how to use a self check out station but I've gotta say that you've reached a sad place in life when going to Walmart is the best source of entertainment available for your Friday evening. Weekends regularly feel like that again now. Yay me right?
I like having stuff to do. I am an activity-based/Pinterest-loving Mom. Can't be helped. I wouldn't have called myself a super busy parent in Olathe but compared with this stuck-inside-all-day-everyday-Jacie of present...dude...we were all over the place.
That fact hit me rather hard when it was time to visit Abby's classroom for conferences. You know how they show you writing samples from the very beginning of the year and now so you can see your child's writing progression? Every year that beginning of the year sample is filled with things like "This summer we went to the Orchard! Legoland! The Aquarium! The Zoo! Science City! The drive-in! We lived at the cool swimming pool with all the slides and stuff! We had a daily dose of ice cream all summer long! We did explosive painting and had the biggest water war ever!"...all kinds of things that made my heart swell with Mommy pride when I'd read her interpretations of how these were the BEST. MEMORIES. EVER. Major Mommy points for me!!!!! Yay!!! I win!!! Being deemed "Awesome Mom" by the little people in my life is a huge area of Mommy pride for me.
It's also been a huge downfall for me since our move. I put way too much value on FUN things. So much so that now that we live in the fun sinkhole of Missouri I can't seem to meet her expectations, expectations that I taught her to look for, anymore. Want proof? This years writing sample said that the best day of her summer was when we stopped for donuts at the gas station before going to work at "the construction zone" (her term for our new home). I cried over that one. Gas station donuts aren't as fun as...well...any of those other things huh?
Not so much. Bummer.
Fun is going to have to change. I get that. We simply can't afford driving an hour or more every day, or even every week to find fun things to do in another town. Ain't nobody got time for that. It makes me sad but that's the way it is now. We're going to need limits...but...limits don't have to stop all of the fun right? RIGHT! I saw a sign advertising Peter Pan Jr. at a theatre in Springfield this weekend and I was shocked to find super cheap tickets when I looked into it. So tonight, for the first time in the 8 months since our move, I'm taking our girls out for FUN and David couldn't argue expenses with me. I can make $16 happen to have one evening of just the three of us and Peter Pan flying around on stage. There is something so very 'home' about that for me. I'm thrilled!
Today I am reclaiming my ability to enjoy(occasional)out on the town fun with my kids. Every once in awhile is better than not at all. Here is my chance to set a new and improved expectation on what fun times look like in our house. It's time to find a healthy balance between "!!!!" and gas station donuts. Sometimes life is a construction zone and things are a little messy/chaotic/stressful but we can still find the fun here. We just have to try a little harder.
