We’ve had a lot going on in the last year: I was put on 14 weeks of strict bedrest with our 4th child, which was a strain on our family in many ways. We had a major house flood that caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage and forced us to leave our home for a while (while I was on bedrest). There was the birth of our baby, a beautiful girl, happy and healthy! Sadly we lost my mother-in-law to cancer, and a few months later we lost our dog of 13 years. And our latest going-on, my husband was offered, and accepted, a new job. This means our family of 6 + dog + tarantula will be packing up and moving state this spring!

We’re leaving our hometown of 14 years in North Carolina and making a new home in Columbia, South Carolina, and while we’re all excited for this adventure to start, we first have to make it through the Limbo Phase of out-of-state relocation. I’m not particularly fond of the Limbo Phase and I sometimes fail miserably at dealing with it gracefully, but I can at least say that I wake up every day ready to start new and try again.

Along the way, there have been little things here and there that I find make life easier and I want to blog about them. How I’m managing my dinner menus while my husband is out of town, what I pack in my house hunting survival bag, how I’m keeping my house clean enough to show while our big family + pets still actually live here… I’m excited to share these little things, as simple and no-brainer as some may be, because I know when you’ve got a lot going on, every little tip and hint can make a difference. I don’t have it all figured out yet, though, so I hope my 3 readers will chime in on each blog post with what works for them in similar cases as well!

In the meantime, here’s a little product that makes me happy every morning. My husband bought me this Thermos to-go mug for my coffee in the mornings while I’m carting kids to school. I’ve tried many varieties of these to-go mugs, and this is by far my favorite. Nobody is paying me to say this, I promise! I just want to pass it on when I find a good product. He found it at Wa1mart, I don’t know how much he spent, hopefully less than the listed price, but honestly if that’s what it cost, it was well worth it. My coffee stays hot and most importantly, it doesn’t have that weird to-go mug taste that so many do! It’s also this pretty magenta color.

It’s laundry day, so I’m off to fluff and fold, but look for some new posts soon!