Okay, not a typical week but not far from it. You see, that’s the thing when you have kids, the unpredictability and chaos is the common denominator no matter what week it is.
This particular week was a rainy week in November and just so happens to be the week we moved house, with two kids and a newborn!
Monday – the heavens are doing their best to convince us all that Noah (the one from the bible) is en route with his Ark and bevvy of beasts but no matter, I still have to brave the floods to collect the car I dropped in for a service earlier today. There is rain up to my ankles, I can’t hear my profanities over the pounding rain but Noah (the one from my family) thinks the entire operation is hilarious… then again, he’s wearing welly boots!
Tuesday – took 2mo Raphy for another kidney X-ray (they saw something on an ultrasound while I was pregnant, cue much torturous investigation to find out what it is). She screamed the whole time as she had to have a catheter inserted up her hoo-haa (I’d scream too). That painful ordeal made us late for our meeting with the estate agent who we were meeting to sign our new lease. Multiple signatures, lots of money and endless paperwork later we had the keys. Lee buggered off back to work and I drove to the new place to let the pest guy in to spray before the move.
Wednesday – Moving day. Three polish dudes, undisclosed boxes and a clingy newborn… yeah it was a breeze! (For those of you unfamiliar with sarcasm, that’s me, being sarcastic).
Thursday – apparently my husband only thought it necessary to take the one day off work so I’m on my own folks. Take kids to school and kindy, return to the hospital to meet with the renal consultant who tells me Raphy needs another X-ray as they suspect she has renal reflux which also means she’ll have to be on antibiotics until she’s 1. Great. That’s great. (sarcasm) Get home where I have boxes to singlehandedly unpack, Internet to fix, groceries to be done, clothes still to be collected from the old place, address details to be changed and… a new born who is refusing to be put down. So I bung her into the Ergo and do it all with her attached to me. Needless to say my kids had toast for dinner.
Friday – finish off the unpacking and go pick up kids. Dinnertime rolls around and (baby in tow) I start preparing two different dinners simultaneously. Burgers for the kids and lasagne for me and Lee. Sounds good right? It would if the damn oven was working. It’s not. The light is not on, it is not heating up. Fuck. Call the estate agent who tells me the earliest she can send someone round will be next week so I’m running non-cook meals through my head that my kids will actually eat. Okay got it, make mental note to buy 10 loaves of bread. She calls me back and asks if I’ve switched it on. Umm yes. Has the fuse gone? Umm I don’t think so but here I’ll just flick these switches on the power box above the fridge and see. Oops, I don’t know what I pressed but I’ve just triggered the house alarm. My entire house is ringing. Neighbour drives past staring at my screaming house. Remember I saw a pad next to the front door and sure enough there’s a code to stop the alarm. Phew. Oh but now it’s making an intermittent BEEP sound instead. Okay call the estate agent again and she sends the landlord round. Lovely man our landlord, he arrives within minutes and disconnects the alarm and resets the oven. Dinner is back on!
All I can say is TGIF!!!!
What are your survival tips when moving house? Share them with me at Hadassah@threelittlehines.com.