So we moved into our beautiful new apartment last week here in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA and in traditional fashion had everything unpacked within 2 days (this was our 12th move in the 7 years we’ve been married). Brent claims I am not very enjoyable during the unpacking process and I must admit that he’s probably right. There is something about being physically unsettled that mentally and emotionally unsettles me and my philosophy tends to be “keep working until it’s done.” Even at 8 months pregnant, I had a really hard time sitting down if there was still something out that needed to be put in it’s place. Of course, this proved quite a challenge without furniture like dressers and bookcases to unpack things into but we did it nonetheless. The totes containing our clothes were put in convenient locations (although after a week of digging through a tote to find clothing, I’m realizing there is nothing convenient about it) and the book boxes were packed away until we get a bookcase on which to display their contents.
I was feeling pretty good about everything until a couple nights ago when periodically we kept getting woken up by things falling off our closet shelf. We were awoken about four times before Brent decided to get up and check out the problem. As he opened our closet door to look, the ENTIRE shelf that goes across the top part of the closet, on which our clothes hang and several boxes sat, ripped away from the wall and fell! So much for my settled home…
Our room now looks like it did a week ago, when we first moved everything in and there seems to be nothing we can do about it until the maintenance people here at the complex come look at it (of course this happens on a holiday weekend). Now this may not seem like a big deal to some people – having a room full of boxes and closets that won’t close properly – it certainly isn’t for my husband, but to me this is pretty stress inducing. I’m sure the Lord is trying to teach me something here; I’m just a bit too dense to grasp it. It probably has something to do with relaxing and not bulldozing through work at the expense of enjoying my family but my heart is having trouble admitting that there’s anything wrong with wanting the job done ASAP. I think my struggle is that when I know I am only in a place temporarily (which is always), I try to minimize the time spent being unsettled so that I can enjoy feeling “at home” for the longest amount of time. In any case, I think a few more closet shelves are going to have to fall before I get it completely.
On a better note, the kids are settled in well and loving their new bedroom. Pardon their lack of clothing but it’s HOT here in California. I thought we were leaving the heat when we left Arizona but apparently California has seen a mild summer so far and the heat wave is just now hitting. The good news is there’s lots of water here with a lake a mile away and a pool in our complex. We are definitely thanking the Lord for that!