We're Still Here

Sorry it's been so long between posts lately. We've been trying to adjust to Christie's schedule here, I've made another trip to Boston, the boys have had the flu, and now Christie and I are fighting with it.

So.

Her schedule is an 8 hour swing shift which means she sometimes works 7am-4pm, sometimes 3:30pm-11:30pm. We're much more accustomed to 12 hour night shifts which accomplishes two things:
1) She sleeps during the day, leaving us boys with the van for shopping, park, geocaching, library, etc.
2) She only works three nights a week, which leaves roughly 3.5 days a week for sightseeing, family time, etc.

So you can see the challenges this different schedule creates. It's funny how all these seemingly insignificant things come into play when you live "on the road" like we do. We purposely travel with one vehicle, partly because it's simpler and partly because several years ago we decided we liked having only one car payment. But Christie being gone with the van all day not only severely limits our trips to the library, park, etc., it leaves the lion's share of the shopping, trips to the post office, and so on to her. So when she's off, she's not really off like she normally would be.

Yes, I realize this is how normal people live, but we're spoiled.

We've tried to use public transportation when possible, but because her company tends to put us in nicer apartment complexes, we're living in Norwalk rather than Bridgeport, and the transit schedules simply don't work from here. The boys and I can use buses to get around, but that becomes tricky if the stops involve a lot of walking, especially if I'm carrying grocery bags. Hopefully her next schedule will be a bit more tolerable, but for now we're just kind of grinning and bearing it. Our philosophy is, "we can do anything for three months." We've done worse for longer.

This of course plays into the boy's daily lives as well. Since we're not able to get to many of the local homeschool activities, and it's still a bit cold outside, they're spending a lot of time on the computer, playing games, building games, making comic strips, playing D&D, and generally turning into little couch potatoes. With Spring coming, and the kindness of some neighborhood homeschool families, we plan to remedy that when the temperature goes up late this week.

As for Norwalk, and Connecticut, we're enjoying it immensely. It puts us close enough to Boston, close enough to our friends in Pennsylvania, and close to the beach. The weather is mild, the scenery is beautiful, the people are nice, and there's a great mix of food and cultures. Christie enjoys her job, despite the crazy schedule, and our apartment is very cozy with plenty of room and lots of outdoor room.

We're planning several trips to NYC, and we plan to do all the touristy things CT has to offer. More updates soon!