How do you survive moving house with four children in tow? I will let you know as soon as I find out, because at this moment it doesn't feel like I'm surviving. Or maybe barely.
We've lived in the mid-west of Ireland in the county called Roscommon for almost six years now and all that time I was looking for something more rural, closer to the coast and just more Irish.
Roscommon is mainly farmland and most of these farmers keep cattle, you don't see much growing unless it's food for their animals.
I believe this is a shame in a country with so much good land and I find it strange that someone with a lot of land has to go to the supermarket to buy their fruits and vegetables. But I guess it has been done for many generations and the farmers just follow in their families footsteps.
Roscommon itself doesn't offer much. Its largest town is really still quite small and unfortunately unemployment is very high here so a lot of people's favourite past time is to hang out in the pub. Some all day, every day.
I often wonder where they get the money to do this, but I am not here to question other people's spending.
But if the Irish could keep inventing new holidays to drink, they would. The Castlerea Rose Festival for instance is such a thing. It is basically a beauty pageant, but not as serious as in the US. It's more for fun than anything else, even though the national version (the Rose of Tralee) is taken quite serious. For six years in a row now, I didn't even find out who won until after the festival, I'd say that shows my interest in it. It's a fun festival for the kids and we have a great time, we really don't care much about the competition part of it. It was a welcome break from all the moving 'stuff' we'd done so far.

My kids having a well deserved break at the event of the year in our 'old' town Castlerea:
The Castlerea Rose Festival

From rural Mid-West to rural West

Since we came to Ireland we've moved three times. All within Roscommon. This time I thought it's time to really move on, to a place with more options and possibilities. I just didn't know exactly where that would be.
I was supposed to rent a Homeschool friend's house last year when they had plans to move to Honduras, but this fell through.
Of course I kept searching for the ideal house that could harbour us including our animals.
But even in rural Ireland, something like that is hard to find.
Then, when I finally gave up searching and thought that the right place would turn up eventually and exactly at the right time, my friend rang me and asked if I was still interested in renting their house.
Of course I was! Not even a week later, I met them at their house for the keys and formal stuff and three days later we started moving our belongings from Roscommon to Mayo.

Excitement quickly turned into panic as soon as I realised what I had done!
I had only just moved my pregnant self and three kids 3.5 years ago and now, with the horrors still vividly etched into my mind, I actually planned to do it again! What was I thinking???
When the panic subsided a little and I was able to breathe again, I realised that this was an opportunity.
An opportunity to clean up (big time!), get rid of unwanted and unneeded things, sell, donate or bin it, whatever, but get rid of LOTS! Also an opportunity to see new things, explore different areas, meet new people, it was gonna be great!
But at the same time, I didn't realise then what a challenge this move would become.

Meme: pikabu.ru

Steemit and a new home falling into my lap together

It was June 2017 when I first entered the world of Steemit and it was June 2017 when I got the opportunity to move to this beautiful place. Call it a coincidence, I call it fate. When I had the keys in my hands mid June, my initial plan was to take things slowly and give myself until the end of July to get through this.
I had the rent for July fully paid already, so there were no worries there.
Around half-way through the month of July, I realised that I didn't have enough time.
I also realised that I had to give my landlord 2 months notice instead of 1 month, since the contract I had wasn't a one year contract but automatically gave us the right to stay for 4 years, which also meant I had to give 2 months notice.
Luckily I had this done on June 16th, so this gave me an extra 2 weeks.
Of course, I underestimated the situation completely, and by the time the second week of August came around, it became very clear to me that I wouldn't make it on time.
Since I had to keep at least 3 of the 4 kids around with me all the time, moving house became a chore that I would have gladly paid someone for to do it instead of me.

Somehow we managed to move all our things by July 12th, my birthday. I had been going through all of our stuff to see what we could get rid of, but I stopped when I felt things were going to be tight.
As a result, I now have boxes full of stuff I still need to sort through, but that was the least of my worries.
My internet and phone was going to be cut off on the 16th of July and therefore I knew we needed to be living in the other house by then. Of course, getting internet connected in the new house wasn't as easy as you'd think either, so I had to be without for quite a while.
My Steemit addiction was under attack and I didn't like it one bit!

One of our dogs stayed in the house with us, the other two, the cats (two mothers and their kittens, 9 in total) and our 2 ponies were left behind. This, of course meant I had to drive back and forth every day to tend to them, which didn't only cost time, but also a lot of money.
A week later, after all the fencing around the house was done, we moved the other dogs and cats as well.
The ponies are still there, but luckily they have enough to eat and drink, so I don't have to be there every day now.
My kids, even though I love them with all my heart, made the last few weeks of moving a living hell.
I can't really blame them for it either. If I think back to my childhood when I was their age, I vividly remember that I was never very patient. My mother used to say that once I had something on my mind, I had to act on it right away, it couldn't wait. Whether it was drawing a picture, swim in the lake, find ladybugs to count their dots...anything you could think of: it would come to mind and I'd be out the door finding what I needed. My mother was right, I was like that and still am today.
My kids mirror me perfectly. Of course they are all four totally unique, but yet I see a lot of me in them and all different traits too. The only thing they ALL have in common with me, is their patience. Or rather: the lack of it.
Isn't that just peachy...
Funny enough a lot of people tell me they can't believe how much patience I have. I always have to laugh about the fact that they obviously haven't met me on an average weekday when I try to get everyone into the car for an appointment I had set up for a certain time. I usually start with asking them 2 hours ahead of time if they have everything ready to go at that time, only to run around like a drill instructor five minutes before our time of exit so they will finally find their second shoe.
Story of my life. At least the last couple of years.

I vaguely remember a time when I could just put on some clothes and walk out the door.
Ahhhh, those were the times...Nowadays a luxury, but therefore much more appreciated. Going shopping for instance feels like a holiday without the kids. It doesn't happen often, but when it does: Whoop whoop! The party train is ON!

Two months of moving hell are finally coming to an end

When I had the keys to our new home, my intention was to get everything packed by the end of the month and some things moved as well. I had a trailer but no tow bar. Perfect.
So I had to get a tow bar on my car.
My car mechanic is one of the best I've ever had and I love him (he is very lovable) but the man is very popular because of that and he has a problem with saying no. So if I am unfortunate enough and bring my car to him on a day when six people have emergency repairs, the car could be with him for three days instead of one or two.
So I always make sure I don't need the car for those days.
Of course, 'not needing a car' if you are moving from one county to the other, never happens.
Lucky for us, we all got sick one by one with some mysterious stomach bug, so we had a very good reason never to leave the house (puking and grocery shopping don't go together somehow).

All of this put some extra strain on me and the time we had.
Then I just decided to get the house done when it was done and the stress immediately left me.
We're getting to the end. Today we got quite some work done. The house is freshly painted and minor repairs are done.
The landlord won't know what hit him. Most people here just pack up and leave, I prefer to leave the house the way it was when I moved there. If it were my house, I would like for people to do the same.
Saturday we are going early to clean the rest of the house, and then I get to hand in the keys!
Exciting times!

I got to clean up, get rid of all our unwanted stuff and work like a maniac, but it was all worth it.
The ponies are coming next week, luckily the landlord is not making a big deal out of it. Besides this, I found him a new tenant, so he's happy. After Saturday I will have the time to sort things in the new place. Get rid of more unwanted items.
And finally I'll have more time for Steemit too. YAY!!!
On to the next chapter! I hope to see you all there. I can't wait!!!

My friend Brian and my youngest three exploring