My hands are red and tender to touch. My legs are caked in dirt. Nearly every muscle hurts. I’m definitely not used to this.

I had a pretty good idea how I wanted this day to go. We were going to attend the local Fourth of July parade, which the kids have attended a few times in the past during visits with their grandparents. Then this evening we would find a place to watch fireworks.

But instead we went into the shop today to be a few extra hands for lifting and moving things. Turns out we ended up being there all day and we didn’t get home until nearly 9pm. So we missed the parade and the fireworks, but I really don’t mind. The only downside was that the air conditioning stopped working today in the office, so there was really no release from the heat all day. At 86 degrees inside, we were all drenched. The kids did great with doing their schoolwork, watching some tv, and keeping hydrated. By the time we got home they were spent and all crawled into bed pretty quickly.

When I saw some fireworks going off near our house, I found Big E still awake so I let him come in my room to watch them from my window. He’s asleep in my bed now.

The first week of my new life has definitely been more exhausting than I anticipated, but I cannot stress how much I love being around my children. My patience level with them has improved dramatically, and they seem to be happier as well. There are moments when I second guess our drastic change, but then there are moments like tonight, when I acknowledge again that it was the very best possible move for our family.

Now to remove a sleeping six year old from my pillow.