Piece of the Puzzle: This Day

Twenty years ago today, we moved. We didn't move far. A big moving truck, lots of packing, and many back and forth trips were required to move our family and our huge assortment of toys, clothes, and all items necessary for a family of seven. Our children were 11, 8, 5, 3, and baby Hilary was 7 months. The home we vacated was 40 years old with 3 small bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The new one was only 30 years old, had, had 5 bedrooms 3 baths, and nearly double the square footage. We were excited to have room to grow. We've seen a lot of growth and change in the past 20 years.

Our kitchen floor was a burnt orange carpet. Hilary took pleasure in crawling around on the soft rug while I cooked. I often had to step over several kids lying about while preparing meals. It was warm and cozy. In spite of vacuuming twice a day, gummy cheerios, spilled milk, and sticky baby food clung to the fibers like glue. We purchased new carpeting. That light gray color lasted a year, before switching to vinyl tile in big blue squares.

Today we have beautiful hardwood flooring.

Hilary learned to walk, ride a bike, and grew up in the only home she remembers. She now lives over an hour away and is crazy busy with college life. I wonder if she remembers how stressful this day was for her every single year. She agonized over how she should dress. Her costume had to be perfect for trick-or-treating. I'm not sure it ever was. I recall a lot of tears and frustration. The bewitching hour always hit when I was in the midst of throwing dinner on the table. I finally wised up and made soup in the crockpot with fresh bread in the bread machine to avoid the last minute adjustments to dressing up.

I thought I did a pretty good job the year the Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded came out.

I enjoyed helping her get her hair just right.

She wasn't convinced this was going to pass the inspection of her critical friends, but we somehow survived for another year.

This is Sarabeth, a neighbor, and Hilary on their way out the door:

I had hoped to recap each of my kids and an anecdote or two, but I'm running out of time. Here are the pumpkin carvings this year by Elisabeth, Brian, Sarabeth, Travis, Hilary, and Tyler: