townhome living

There are a lot of reasons I sometimes wish I could be a bird.  To be able to fly, soar, see things from a different perspective, and so on.  But there is one thing that tops them all... they fly away during the winter.

Oh, what I wouldn't give to grab my little flock and fly away to some place warm. Some place where my kids could roam free, explore the world around them, get all of their wiggles out OUTSIDE, and to feel the warmth on our faces.  A place where the flowers are in full bloom, the smell of freshly mowed grass lingers in the air, where sprinklers can be heard and the world is full of light and warmth.

I do like having all four seasons.  I would not want to live somewhere without all of the seasons.  I love the magic of the first snowfall, the white Christmas', sledding, hot chocolate, bundling up, and building snowmen.  I just wish it was less long, thats all...a lot less long.

The older I get, the harder winter is on me.

Correction:  The more children I have, the harder winter is on me.  And this townhome living is not helping.

Don't get me wrong, we were extremely blessed to find this place, (and we live above the disgusting inversion, so we do get sun) and it is a very nice townhome. Granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, wood floors, newly painted, and so on. The month to month rent is nothing short of a miracle. Like I said, huge blessing.

The layout of the place is just so ridiculous.  There are 37 stairs. Both bathrooms are on the top floor. Um, yeah, what on earth!?!? 

When you open the front door, you have to go straight up the stairs to the main living area.  The room on the bottom floor, is just a big ol' room that is good for nothing.  We dumped all of the kids toys there as well as some of our storage and the guinea pigs...yup, they are still around, are you proud of us?

The main floor is nice, but small, considering 6 of us live here.

The top floor is all of the bedrooms and both bathrooms.  Did I mention that both bathrooms are on the top freakin' floor!  Boo!

I am basically marching up and down stairs all day long.  And the levels are so small, that if the kids get out more than a few toys, the place looks trashed.  My wonderful type A personality cannot handle that at all.  I think I have tripped on at least three toys a day since we have been here.And everyone except for Luke has fallen down the stairs.  I clean ALL DAY LONG, and basically feel that I accomplish a whole lot of nothing.  Awesome.

Are you sick of my complaining yet?  Well, hold on, there's more.

The kids are stuck inside. It is winter, of course they are.  The cramped quarters, the freezing temps and the constant mess in the house have gotten to all of us.  The kids are struggling for space and freedom from eachother, and their patience with eachother gets thinner every day.  I find myself counting to 10 way more than I should be, and at times, I have made it to 20, and other times, I don't count...yikes!

Lack of sports is also a big one.  We are waiting until we get into our home, before we start up any sports with the kids.  Our kids are extremely active, so this is rough on everyone.  Rock climbing at the gym is helping though.  I think I may just burn the TV by the time winter is over and we are out of this place.

All of our stuff is crammed in the garage, so the car remains outside.  The heater in the Pathfinder does not work unless you are going 70 or faster, so each morning I take Mary to school, I get to load up all of the kids into the giant freezer of a car, scrape the windshield, and we all get to shiver the whole way to the school and back.  Oh, I can't wait for my kids to be able to ride the bus, when we move into our new house.  It will save me three trips a day to the school and back.  Yes!

I drive by our house we are building at least once a day now, and just dream.  I feel like a dog with this big, juicy bone just out of my reach, and I am going nuts for it.  They are doing the framing this week, and it is awesome to see our house come up out of the ground and take shape. 

We will be moving in the first of April.  SPRING!  Space, a new house, space, spring, warmth, flowers, space, kids outside playing, living next to neighbors and friends that we know and can chat with, space, kids riding the bus,  and did I mention space.

I am trying to live in the moment, but all I can seem to think about is living in our new home, the kids playing outside in the yard with the neighborhood friends, sunshine, and sports.  It sounds so wonderful that I can hardly stand it sometimes.

Until then, townhome living is ours.  We may kill eachother in the process, and I may just flip a lid, but hey, we will survive. It could be worse, so much worse.

Townhome living is for the birds...NOT!