We live in Austin now: an update

Moving was such a big thing, you know? From Minnesota to Texas, a flurry of boxes and cleaning all the things and saying goodbye and hello. In some ways, moving from state to state feels like you’re being transported through time. Everything is that new. But the date is the same and the people in our home are the same so we’re okay. I mean, if the calendar date had inexplicably changed, I might not have made it. Time is tricky enough going along at its usual slow/too fast speed, 24 hours a day.

The kids are amazing. It’s as if nothing happened. Maybe it’s simply because they’re young enough to really only concern themselves with whether or not their parents and siblings and Things are together. Sometimes they ask questions that reveal their confusion, and that they miss certain things and people. We talk openly about all of it and then I hold my breath for a moment and try to believe it will all be okay. Mostly, being away from family is not okay and so we pray that it will become okay, by looking forward to visits and talking about that a lot.

Ryan’s job is going well. He’s really good at what he does and it seems the people in the office here are happy to have him. He has a beautiful drive and he gets up really early to make the commute, avoiding traffic. He is gone before I wake up. This is so weird. If you know Ryan, you know I am the early bird and he is…not. But he’s enjoying the rituals of the early morning and it’s becoming a new normal for him. I’m the one still confused about his empty side of the bed when my eyes open in the morning.

I mentioned before that there’s an in-home preschool RIGHT next door, in the home of the kindest most organized and positive woman I’ve met in a long time. Her name is Michelle (my sister’s name!) and she rarely has openings. There’s a waiting list and babies and kids go to her house from 6 weeks to kindergarten. FOUR are grauduating to kinder this fall and this leaves her with ONE toddler opening after the waiting list is covered.

Elsie Jane is a toddler. I have no childcare right now for the working on the writing and all the things. We secured Elsie a spot next door last week by doing all the paperwork, etc. She is free to join in next door all week if need be, but it’s FLEXIBLE, so I can bring her whenever I need to bring her. It doesn’t have to be full-time and WOW. I just can’t believe it. Grateful. Yes.

We’re about 20 miles north of downtown Austin, but we keep going to events in the city and around the suburbs where we live. There’s so much to do, a person could seriously keep going every day on and on and never run out. We’re a get up and go kind of family (except when we’re not) and so this is really good for us. We love Austin, exploring and even the heat. (This is where I say thank you to friends I know through blogging that have helped so much, and our friends Nicki and Dio who have welcomed us and showed us the Austin way, each of them.)

My Grandma moved to an apartment after many many years in the same home right around the very same time we moved here. I miss her and wish I could more easily sit in her new living room with her. We have the buffet my grandpa built in our dining room and a painting my Grandma passed on to me in our living room. These are the things I take with me, because things are just things….unless they aren’t. I love to add things to our home that mean something. You know that quote that says something like have nothing in your home that you do not find beautiful or meaningful. I try to keep it to that. I must LOVE it or it has to mean something. Otherwise, it’s just more stuff sitting there asking me to dust it or put it away.

I love to dust the buffet. I’m just saying.

In less than two weeks I’m going to Chicago for a few days to run the Serenity Suite and to speak at HealthMinder Day at BlogHer. This will be the first time mom is away since we moved here and I’m nervous. That’s that.

There’s so much to say, but those are the Big Things, I think. The boys will start school at the end of August and I’ll cry. So for now, we’re just hanging out, sometimes quietly and sometimes really LOUDLY and adventuring. We’re drinking in summer quite literally because I cannot seem to get the kids to stop gulping water at the pool and in the bath, where we try to wash off all the dirt and grime and chlorine and sweat.

I tell them they’re drinking pee when they do that, but they don’t seem to care. Kids are weird. Kids are kids wherever you go.

Love, Dr. Heather Seuss

P.S. If you like to write stuff and could use a dose of free-writing, come back later tonight when I put up Just Write. And if you have a favorite photo that speaks “motherhood” to you, please send it to me.