If there is one sound I’d never want to hear again, it is the sound of packing tape streaking and screeching its way across a cardboard box. I’d really rather not see anything made out of cardboard for a while too. Yes, we’ve moved and let me just say that moving with four kids is definitely not for the faint of heart.

While most people were busy enjoying barbeques and paying homage to the men and women who either have served or are serving this country, this past weekend the Blaustein family was all packed up and moving south.

Even though we were paying the men who helped us move, I did end up feeling very sorry for the moving company we used. It took them from 8 am Friday morning until 10:30 Friday night to complete the job and we weren’t even moving that far.

The owner, who was a great guy, had underestimated the amount of stuff we had and how long it would take them to complete the job. Before he left, he pretty much said that he would never want to move our family again. And I don’t blame him cause I don’t either.

Our move was bookended by my husband being out of town for business. His first departure seemed to come at the most inopportune time. I was left without a wingman to help with packing and getting the kids ready to leave our home of five years. In addition, in his absence, my oldest daughter got very sick and ran a temperature so high that it scared me all the way to the ER.

Transition for everyone is hard but I think I underestimated how hard it would be on my kids. While I think they were excited to be moving to a larger home with more space for them to roam and play, my kids experienced the move very differently than I did.

Georgia almost exploded with energy on many occasions. Not only were we moving but she is about to turn four. The past few weeks she has also witnessed several of her classmates moving on into kindergarten. I could tell she was struggling when she started doing things amidst the move that were making me crazy. Her energy level was amplified by ten and she started to do weird things like peeing on the floor and in a storage container I was prepping to pack. I tried so hard not to react and instead be calm but it was a struggle for me to be patient with all of the kids, as I wanted so badly to get the house packed up.

With my husband travelling again this week I found myself feeling anxious as I unpacked into our new surroundings. I know it took me weeks to pack so I was crazy to think that I could be unpacked in just a weekend. But I wanted to. I didn’t consciously think that I could but I ran myself ragged trying. I became obsessed with getting everything into its proper place and I just couldn’t sit still.

In my rushing, I got a speeding ticket Wednesday for the first time in over 19 years. Did I mention I was in a construction zone? Oh, double-fine-joy! I swear I didn’t consciously cry to try and get out of the ticket but I got so emotional that I couldn’t help myself. It’s scary getting pulled over. In that moment I caved to my exhaustion and through my tears I think I uttered something about having just moved and rushing to get home to my “newborn baby” (she’s four months…nice).

So, the officer gave me a break and recorded my speed as if it wasn’t in a construction zone to cut down on the fine. So crying didn’t totally work but it might have helped. Since it has been awhile he told me “these days folks can do traffic school online”. I felt old.

My lesson for the week comes in the form of a moving violation. I need to slow down and breathe. It’s been a big month for our family. We’ve moved, Olivia has just completed kindergarten and is entering the first grade, and Georgia is about to turn four. We finally got our phone and Internet connection up and running as of yesterday and slowly but surely I feel myself slowing down.

With four kids five and under, I don’t really claim to know what normal is, but I’m looking forward to signs of our version of normalcy returning as we welcome summer and begin our lives in our new home.

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