The huswife's guide to

Today was a sad day for my husband and little ones. My mother in law and her sister (they're twins and live together so my husband is very close with both) visited for the past four weeks and just went home today. They are not expecting to see the kids for two more years.

My husband and I met online and he moved here from Australia in 2006. Over the past almost 6 years of having children we have seen his mother 4 times including this last trip. She came for our wedding in 2007 when my oldest was 9 months, another visit in 2010 when my oldest was 2 1/2 and my middle son was 10 months, we visited Christmas 2011 with 4 and 2 year olds, and now they were here summer of 2013 visiting the three kids ages 5, 3, and 7 months. That's about as often as any of us have been able to afford to come and visit and take the time off of work.

It's really sad to me whenever they go. So many different stages of development are missed and they basically don't get to see the grand kids grow up. I can't imagine what it's like for my husband being so far away from his family, especially his mother. My mom lives in the same town as us and will be moving when we do. I like being close to my family.

I also feel a bit guilty - it is my fault. I'm the reason he moved up here in the first place. It's also getting harder for the kids as they get older and understand how long it's going to be before the next visit. I'm in the process of trying to talk them into moving to Canada, but so far no luck. It's too cold.

Soon I'll be moving away from a lot of my close family too. My half sister is the same age as my daughter (a whole 'nother story) and the two are best friends. They'll go from being 6 hours away from each other to 12-13 hours away.

It's a good thing for technology. At least we have Skype, iPhone Facetime, and online gaming to keep connected. It definitely makes the separation feel a bit smaller.

On Monday my dishwasher broke and we won't have the replacement part until next week. Yesterday my microwave decided to overheat itself and while it's working now it seem like it won't last long. Now the kitchen sink is not draining and we can't seem to get it unclogged.

I decided today would be a fabulous day to sort through my baby clothes. I have two garbage bags full to sell. I have eight tote bins to go in the shed. EIGHT. Living in a country with two distinct seasons means each size comes with a snowsuit, boots, and warm stuff, plus summer stuff. This is sizes 0-5 for girls and 0-3 for boys I packed away. Since baby Amelia will grow into big sister's clothing I kept a lot. I'm not done having kids either, so hopefully future baby #4 gets some use out of them as well.

So this is it...the first post. The first post on a blog kind of reminds me of the first words in a brand new notebook. I've always had a thing for notebooks. Then there's the challenge of what to write about... It seems like it should be significant. You don't want to waste your first post, you'll never get it back.