Moving

I'm falling behind blogging....again. First it was a busy summer and the preparation for the start of a new school year. This time it's because we've purchased a house and are moving. We're leaving our community of 13 years and moving to z different county located 40 miles south of where we live. It's a full time job right now coordinating the move, packing and making sure the transition will be as smooth as possible for our kids.

In this last year we have put our house of 12 years on the market, sold it, moved to a rental, researched communities, house-hunted and purchased a home. The end of this state of limbo is in sight. One week from tonight we'll be exhausted but moved in.

And after that, hopefully some return to normalcy. First though, I've got to get Abigail situated in a new school. You know what that means, more meetings with the staff, more medical forms to complete, more Peanut Allergy Action Plans to prepare and possibly more allergy awareness to promote.

I've got a huge week ahead of me. Time for some rest. It's going to be another very busy day tomorrow.

Not a good day for a showing!

We have our house for sale in an effort to move closer to my husband's new job.  It is not an easy task to keep a house "show" ready with an active family of four, two of those family members being 7 and 3.

I was organizing my recipe books, a project I've wanted to do for years, but never had the time, when I came across a recipe for jalapeno jelly.  My pepper plants are full of red and green jalapenos right now so I thought why not?  I had the jalapenos and bell peppers in my garden and sugar and cider vinegar in the pantry.  All I needed was some pectin, limes and cute jelly jars...easy enough!  Look at that picture.  It looks like a bomb went off in my kitchen.  It was Saturday afternoon, and all I kept thinking was what if someone called and wanted to come see the house in an hour.  Lucky (or maybe unlucky) for us, no one called.  I shouldn't have worried anyway.  Apparently, there are no home buyers right now.

This week's market report from our Realtor shows a 22 month inventory of available homes.  Just in our zip code there are one hundred thirty-six homes available for sell, and only 6 homes in our listing price range sold last month.  I know it only takes one buyer, but it's very frustrating nonetheless.

So, how did my jelly turn out.  Beautiful, aside from the fact that this was all I got from that mess I made.  Can't wait though to try it with some cream cheese and crackers over the holidays, or maybe even served as a relish with a roast.  Next up, the green pepper jelly, and another huge mess to clean up.

Changes are Coming!

Sorry, I'm not writing an exciting post about new allergen labeling regulation requirement changes or new policies mandating companies segregate their manufacturing processes for nut products or that there's been a huge change and a new trend is emerging and food allergies are on the decline.  Nope, nothing as exited as news of any of those changes would be, but changes are definitely coming for my family.  My husband has a wonderful new job, and we're moving.

After several weeks of keeping secrets, talking behind closed doors or in code, we finally broke the news to Abigail and now to our friends.  As sad as it's going to be to leave behind a house that has been our home for 12 years, a wonderful church, fabulous friends and neighbors, a nice community and great schools, we're looking forward to a new house, new opportunities, new adventures and a new town.  The move keeps us within our home state but puts us closer to both sets of parents/grandparents, closer to Duke and in a really nice region.

Actually, Abigail took it much better than I expected.  She's been asking to paint her room pink for a while now, and she'll be able to in the new house.  She also is envisioning a decor of peace signs, hearts and stars.  If that's all it takes, I'll happily accommodate!  It's going to be very hard to leave school mid-year, but I remind her repeatedly, that she's fabulous at making new friends, and that she's lucky because she'll have her friends here to e-mail and Skype and have a bunch of new friends there.  The move only takes us about an hour drive away from where we are now so visits aren't out of the question either.

What the move means for me, is that I'm busy every waking minute of the day.  We've accumulated a lot of stuff in the last 12 years of living in this house.  I'm in mass purge mode.  So, while taking large loads to Goodwill, I'm still packing up boxes to take to a storage unit in an effort to better "stage" the house....and be able to park a car in the garage!  Then there is the painting, cleaning, flooring, landscaping...ugh!!  It's all a bit much.  I'm anxious to get a "For Sale" sign up so we can start house shopping!  That's the exciting part for me.

Big changes are in store for us. While I can't quite report that yet in regards to food allergies, changes are in the works.  We've got to believe that doctors and scientist aren't too far away from determining why there is such an increase in the number of kids and even adults who have food allergies, and then determining what changes need to be made in our diet/lifestyle to avoid new allergies.  While it doesn't sound like a cure for food allergies is close by, at least with all of the clinical trials taking place, it does sound like a change will happen soon to allow us to better manage our food allergies, particularly life-threatening food allergies.  So, yes, changes are coming!