September 2 - Wait, where am I?

Grammy was reading Stone a book today and when she finished he looked up and said, "Wait, where am I?" His imagination is really vivid so he gets really into books, but has slept in six different beds and lived in four different houses during the past 3 weeks so it's no wonder he's disoriented. And tonight when I put Sophie to bed she nearly broke my heart as she wept quietly and listed all the things that were the same about where we are now: "Your voice is the same, Mama. And your hugs are the same. And the family is the same. And the sun and moon are the same..." to comfort herself. She asked me at least 10 times today "When are we going back home again?"

With that said, it was as wonderful a day as it could have been. The house looked more cheerful in sunlight, and is really well stocked with everything we need. We woke up at 9:30, ate some croissants that the owner had bought for us, went to church (it was a beautiful, friendly ward! So excited!), went grocery shopping (people were literally staring at us with mouths agape - I assume the combination of so many children, all speaking English and how much food we bought), got all unpacked and moved in, and ate our first dinner in the house. It was a blessing to wake up here on Sunday - almost everything is closed so we wouldn't have been able to do anything else anyway, and we were able to move furniture around, remove the tackiest knickknacks while still retaining its charm, let the kids become familiar with the house, and really observe a much needed day of rest. I've got to go to bed, but I know if I get behind it's going to be hard to catch up so I'm just going to post pictures tonight really quick.

Right inside the front door is a sky-lighted courtyard. The kitchen,  laundry room and one bedroom and bathroom are on the ground floor

Erik and his mom walking out the front door this morning. That big white building is the house!

There is plenty of space for all the kids to have their own rooms, but they want to be together. So this is an extra bedroom which we're making the play room (meaning they can go there to play with the three toys they each brought from home) :)

Linday and Lucy resting mid-unpacking in their room

Each room is full of framed cross-stitched pieces, knick knacks, and above all, Catholic Art. We all have Saints and Marys watching over us. I love it. This is a close-up of a head board.

This captures a few elements: the doors are all that interesting pattern, the cheerful tile, and the kids' favorite: the bidet.

Hello from me!! This is a mirror above a little desk in Erik's and my room

One half of the family room. Erik insisted on taking that coffee table out after the picture was taken - there's no carpet in the house so we're going to buy a cushiony rug for that area so he and the kids can wrestle and snuggle.

The house is really tall... it has a staircase in the middle and a landing on each floor. Bottom floor (as mentioned: Courtyard, Kitchen, Bedroom and bath, laundry, closets. Second floor: This landing plus our bedroom on one side and the family room on the other. Third floor: a landing with a white couch by the window, and then L&L's room on one side (with their own bathroom), and S&S's bedroom and the "play room" on the other (each with their own bathrooms). Then the next floor up has another bedroom and bath which is used for storage and Erik's office, and a door out to the roof-top terrace. It is kept locked because it's not well enough fenced, but we heard church bells ringing this morning, and Lindsay unlocked the door to the roof and could see this huge amazing old church right there and watched the bells ringing in the tower!!

And now night night!!