On Moving

As much as my family has moved in the past 5 years one would think we are a military family. Well not really we moved 4 times in one county. Still moving takes a bit of fortitude and organization. The first 4 times we moved I had the help of my DP. It was easy he and I packed boxed and moved our things together across town. We packed and unpacked like a dual machine.
The last time I packed up a house I was primarily on my own. My Dp was working full time and it was all on me to find boxes, schedule a storage unit, and pack up the house. For this particular move I had about 4 yard sales leading up to the move.
Now six months after we moved our things across the state of North Carolina we are moving half back in the direction in which we came. Once again its up to me to pack up our mountain home, schedule a U-haul truck and find a storage unit in our new location. Now this isn't the norm. This move is happening super fast. We don't even have time to find a place to rent in the mean time. So we'll be seeking a Hotel for accommodation for a few weeks and then move into a rental.
I realize there are domestic engineers who have the benefit of calling the local moving company. I am not really sure how to go about finding a reliable moving company. In fact I wish we had the luxury of it but moving three times in one year doesn't afford me the joy of watching someone else move my things.
This move is starting like the last successful move. It will start with me cleaning each room as if we were going to live there long term. I would move furniture, clean and polish furniture, toss anything I don't want and then start packing. This method I adopted from the world renowned Flylady. She is the one who taught me the baby steps to house keeping and home organization. The benefit to this method is that you don't move with anything you don't want and you don't have a lot of cleaning afterwards. Twice I have moved and it felt like it took me longer to clean the house after our things were packed and moved than it did for the actual packing and moving. So for me cleaning my home as it is, is the first major step.
The next thing is the "box hunt". It maybe tempting to go down to the local U-haul and pick up a few packing boxes for nearly $7 each but please save your money. There's LOTS of places to get cardboard boxes for free. The number one place in most places in the U.S. is the local liquor store. Now unfortunately for myself, I live in a liquor free county (unless you count the moon shine stills hidden in the hills). So I don't really have the option of stopping by the liquor store for boxes. My other option is the grocery store. I am lucky our local grocery store offers boxes at the front of the store. They are there for a good portion of the day but sometimes they are taken to the compactor. I have lived in places where fire codes prohibited retail facilities from keeping boxes in the store. They either had to be compacted or disposed of in a cardboard recycling bin. Now if you aren't willing to spend money on boxes, you live in a dry county and local fire code prohibits card board boxes from hanging out in the store, you are going to have to suck up your pride and go diving. Dumpster diving! Before you do that put out a line on freecycle or craigslist. You might be fortunate enough that someone is willing to pass along their moving boxes. Now back to dumpster diving. This is one of those things that sucking up self pride and saving a dollar really counts. Just think you are doing the enviroment a favor by not buying a new box, and you are saving yourself a bit of money as well. First and foremost there are some rules for dumpster diving for boxes everyone should know.
#1 Never get in a dumpster if you are alone. You may be able to get out !!!!
#2 IF the dumpster doesn't say "card board Only" don't waste your time. There might be a box in there but its probably got some really disgusting food on it.
#3 Do this in the day time. Most Dumpsters are located behind stores that are poorly lit at night. If you have to go at night take someone with you.
#4 Don't dive in a dumpster after it has rained. Now this a no brainier right? I wish, but even several days after it has rained the cardboard in the dumpster can still be water damaged. Its best to wait until you know the dumpsters have been emptied and its hasn't rained for a few days.
#5 Medium sized Collapsed boxes are the best boxes. At first looking in a dumpster of flattened card board can be a little upsetting. However, you can rebuild any box that has only been collapsed to flatten it. Just a roll of packing tape you are on your way. Also, you can get a lot of collapsed boxes at one time in your car.
#6 NEVER get in a dumpster when you are a lone. I realize this is a the second time I have mentioned this, but its VERY IMPORTANT. If you do get in a dumpster when you have help with you, its also important that you can get out. Yes free boxes are tempting but if you get stuck in a dumpster it would be pretty embarrassing for that to show up in the police blotter (Jane Doe 29 was rescued from the local dollar store card board box dumpster Friday evening after she went in for some free boxes. ) Now moving is also a good reason to grabbed a refrigerator box for the kids. I will get to what I do with my kids when moving day comes.
With every move I have spent lots of money of good quality tape. The last time we moved our things stayed in storage unit for nearly 8 months. Its important to purchase tape that will make through the move. Ideally duct tape is a bad option. The adhesive on these types of tape don't hold well in heat and humidity. Scotch tape for gift wrapping is too weak to really hold a heavy box together. The best option is clear packing tape but even that can be cheap. Its not a bad idea to buy the good quality stuff. I personally like the clear tape that gets damaged if it sicks to itself. If tape sticks to its self and pulls a part easily its probably not very good tape.
Now I have been fortunate with my last move. We decided while unpacking that we should keep all of our boxes. We had intended on moving from our current home into something bigger.
If you have childern moving can be difficult. The emotional toll of moving shows in each child differently. My DS said he didn't care that we were moving. My step kids were sad we moved over 4 hours away from them. One of the things Have done over the past few years is pick up a Large box for the kids to play in while I am packing. Its up to them what the box becomes. The first time I gave my DS a box for moving he was just over a year old and destroyed the box in only a little while. The last time we moved, the box I gave him was a master piece of coloring and scribbling. I was also surprised how much time he spent drawing and playing in the box. It was his on little world away from all of the chaos of moving.
So I am off to start on my home I have less than two weeks to make this move happen as smoothly as possible.

Failing your child with the reward of success

At one point or another all parents will find themselves in a situation that doesn't ignite pride but instead ignites a need to defend your child's need to know they failed. It may be that one day your child comes home from school with an A on paper they you can clearly see isn't A work. It might be that your child was supposed to earn enough stickers to go to a class party and didn't but went anyway. Too often childern are rewarded when they haven't preformed to a certain level. These times are when parents truly need to step up and ask why?
I found myself in this strange situation a few weeks ago. My three year old son had been attending AWANAS at a local church. AWANA's uses bible verse memorization and group activities to engage childern in the life of Christ. Children who memorize bible verse units are rewarded with patches to put on a vest. Since August my son and I had been working on a near weekly basis doing bible study and memorization. I was amazed that he could spit out two or three verses a week, he was just barely three when we started. After 10 months of working he had completed all of the bible verses for his age group and thus completed his first work book. The reward was a small bear to attach to his vest. He had even finished early and was very excited about getting his first book award. I was excited to because for the first time in his life he had done a group activity and in the process accomplished the monumental task of memorizing nearly 100 bible versus.
It was an evening earl this June when we showed up to the award ceremony. He was excited he was finally going to receive his award. We arrived just in time for it to start. His age group was going to go second after the 2 year olds. Finally, the big moment had arrived. He was up on stage. Things kicked off with a song and then one by one each child was called to recieve their award. They first when through all of the First year awards and my son's name wasn't called. I had assumed since we were a bit late that things were out of order. Then they called the second year awards. Then finally the announcer said "And this years participation award goes to Nathan J. For participating in Cubbies". I was very confused at this point. My son didn't just participate in cubbies. He and I had put forth a lot of effort to earn his patches. He had all of his patches so why then didn't he get his first year award.
Nathan asked where his bear was and I told him we'd have to go talk to someone. I didn't really know what was happening. My first thought was because my family didn't attend this church on a weekly basis that we weren't allowed to get the Full award. Then I realized that wasn't the right way to think about things the first church we attended for AWANA's had a lot of participants who didn't attend on a weekly basis. I left the auditorium and started gathering my questions. I found one of his class room teachers and asked why he didn't get his first year award and she said he didn't know the versus. He wasn't their enough. My heart boiled with furry. Not because my son hadn't accomplished this task but because no one told me he wasn't preforming in class. In fact they were rather insistent that I bring his book so he could get his patches. I was upset that everyone acted as though things were fine my son was being rewarded for half way doing things. That wasn't okay with me. Either my child makes an "A" or he doesn't. I couldn't believe that was happening even at church.
I actually had to leave and sit in the car I was so upset. My son and I had nearly 3 full weeks to review and work on any versus he didn't know and none of his teachers told me. Like I said he was already given his patches. For three weeks i was under the impression that things were fine. After the ceremony was over I found the coordinators for his age group and tried as hard as possible to remain calm. I asked her why my son had his patches for the versus he'd learned if hadn't actually done them class. Why was under the impression for nearly a month that my child had done the work needed to earn those patches. Honestly at this point I didn't want my son to even have a vest full of patches he didn't earn. The coordinator didn't really know what I was talking about. She was actually impressed that my son had gotten things done. She said there had been a mix up and some of the kids didn't get the right awards. Additionally there was confusion over who had actually finished their books. That explanation was fine with me. It didn't change the fact my son was recognized in front of every as only as a participant but I can let that go.
I had found myself having to take up for my son's possible failure. It was a strange place to be to say the least. I can only imagine what it will be like later on if he goes to school. I expect those who are in charge of son and his education be it religious or academic tell me when he isn't doing superior work. I wouldn't dare be hurt by it in the least. In fact I would be very appreciative. I would be empowered to help my child succeed at a later time.