Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Starting Over

We've moved, and are now officially Texans! I apologize for being so absent recently, but we're almost out of the last of our moving boxes and I think that we're on the road to a bit more stability...Hopefully :) 

We have some very friendly neighbors and have already invited one little boy over to play with C, which was really important for my poor 4 year-old who has spent way too much time with grown-ups for the past couple of weeks! Another neighbor brought over a banana bread to welcome us to the neighborhood, and I've been flooded with information about mom's groups that I can join in the fall. I feel very lucky to have moved into such a welcoming community, and I am excited for our family to hunker down and really invest in this community. Hopefully we'll stay put for more than a couple of years this time! 

Yet in the midst of all of the friendly welcomes, I am feeling a bit nostalgic and lonely. Nostalgic for the friends and the home that we left, lonely because I don't have any girlfriends to invite over for coffee at the last minute...And a bit daunted by the amount of energy, and a certain amount of vulnerability, that it takes to foster the types of friendships that I know I will eventually need! I feel a little bit like the new girl in school that I so often was during a childhood filled with moving around, except that the women here are much friendlier and more forgiving than the middle or high school girls were :) In any case, let's just hope that I don't say anything really dumb and that if I do, I will quickly recover and no harm will be done :)

Praise God for the chance to start over, to form new routines and organize our home in new ways, and for the chance to rely solely on Him when daily tasks seem intimidating or overwhelming. 

*On an unrelated note, any tried-and-true tips on how to clean the yuck off of the white caulking in a shower? Also, any favorite stain-removers for baby poop? Thanks!

5 comments:

Juris Mater said...

Texas Kat, those ladies are immeasurably blessed to have you as a member of their community! I SO wish that you were moving into my neighborhood.

Prayers for a smooth transition, social and otherwise!

B-Mama said...

LOVE love the pic of the kids in the box!! Too cute! I am thrilled to hear how welcomed you've been to the neighborhood--that is worth a million! Sounds like the community is ripe for a Kat and you have SO much to offer... so go in there and grace the neighbors' lives, which you will!! I can't wait to hear how blessed it is. You'll be relaxing there in no time! Prayers!

Gail said...

Congrats on your move, and prayers that it be a good one for you and your family. As for the cleaning product question, for the tub I'd recommend any bathroom spray that has bleach in it. Spray very liberally and leave it on there for a while. It may not get all white but it should help a lot. And the Dreft stain remover spray works well even on baby poop. Sorry, no "green" suggestions today, but this is what has worked best for us.

Mary Alice said...

Kat, I am feeling all of those same things!

If the mildew is really below the caulk, you need to rip it out and re-caulk. You can bleach first, but it will probably come back because if there is mildew behind the caulk that means that it is not sealed.

Recauking is not a big deal, you just scrape it out with a razor blade, clean the area well and let it dry, and you can get clear or white caulk at a home store, it comes in tubes and you buy a gun to advance the tube, and you just apply it like applying toothpaste. I would say this all takes one weekend. We need to do it in our shower, it is on the massive minor project to do list for our new home!

Grout bleaches well, but if you have cracks in your grout you can also easily re-grout yourself, we need to do a bit of that in our kitchen on of these days!

Right Said Red said...

Kat,

Congrats on the new home and the move! All I have to say is that I would love to have you move into my town, those ladies are sure lucky to have someone as awesome as you to befriend!

Prayers for you as you continue with this transition.