Moving on again

I wish it were really true that rolling stones gather no moss. Somehow, no matter how short a stay we have in any given place, we always seem to accumulate more stuff! I think I really need to figure out a filing system and actually use it at our next house for all these miscellaneous papers… Too bad I can’t use a filing system on all this other stuff. Fortunately I have enough sense never to end up like one of the people in those Hoarders shows. I worked for a lady one day a week after college for several months, and she definitely could have been on one of those shows. I honestly think she needed a psychiatrist. She hired me in about September to help her pack for her move to Florida. Well, not only did she not have actual plans to move to Florida, but she also would not let me pack anything. Oh my goodness. It was a nightmare, every time, for perhaps six months that she had me come. There was barely enough room in her house to move around, between bookcases, portable closets, and heaps of papers and books. The kitchen was a mass of clean tins to be recycled, piled three high all over the counters. I will say this: She was not dirty, which is actually rather significant. But she would not throw anything away that could possibly be useful again to anyone. Oy! Lord, please keep me sane and remind me that I can’t take anything with me when I leave!

Well, Timothy’s birthday cake is out of the oven and smells great! Several months ago he requested a Mickey Mouse cake for his birthday, and someone had suggested I go to Dairy Queen or Baskin Robbins to order one, but in my usual procrastination, I realized yesterday I still had not done so, and his party is tomorrow. Boy, am I grateful that there are other idiots out there like me. There must be, for there in the party section at Walmart – where I was gathering balloons and favors all at the last minute – was a disposable Mickey Mouse cake pan set with a plastic overlay of Mickey’s face. Perfect! Timothy preferred that to the idea of cupcakes, so we grabbed it. I only got Timothy one birthday gift this year, so I figured we could pay a little extra for a cake he really wanted to take to a party that will be very brief anyway.

(He also asked for a pinata, but having seen how little ones handle a pinata at my cousin-once-removed Madeline’s birthday party last year, I thought maybe we’d wait a couple years for that.)

So we are having a very low-key 3rd birthday party tomorrow, a week early. Why? Yes, it’s because we’re moving again next week. And I figured Timothy would rather have a tiny party here with the few friends he has made (mostly adults, sadly enough) than celebrate on his birthday in a motel somewhere. With whom? Daddy is not a real birthday person. And with what? I couldn’t have made a cake in a motel. So we’re going to the park tomorrow to meet a handful of friends for an hour. I can’t say whether the other kids will have a good time, but I’m pretty sure Timothy will. All he needs is some cake and a playground to keep him happy. Oh, and the “Happy Birthday” song, of course. We’ll see what happens anyway.

We’re moving to a town about an hour away from Savannah, Georgia, where we can hopefully stay for at least a year (unless God has bigger and better plans for us, which is our constant prayer!). We leave Wednesday and will get to visit my grandma on the way, arriving Friday evening – on Timothy’s birthday. I should be packing and concentrating on how we’re going to fit everything into our car (and throwing out everything else), but I’m trying to get through tomorrow first with a lot going on besides Timothy’s party. One thing at a time, right? It’s not as though I’m packing up my whole house, since we’ve been living in a furnished place.

…And actually, I’m going to write another post about this furnished place – or rather, the things I’m looking forward to about being somewhere else. :)