a well-oiled machine

I enjoy comfort. I like to be warm. Not hot. Not cold. I don't enjoy a stomach that screams with hunger. I find it very uncomfortable to be tired. I prefer eight hours of sleep a night. If this is not met I typically require a nap of some kind. I relish clean environments, especially homes. I love clean bodies, hair, and teeth.
While I am a busy person I do not delight in an overly scheduled calendar. Too many activities coupled with too much homework and an obscene amount of to-do items can drive me to distraction, i.e., the fetal position on my bed.
On hectic days I look especially forward to curling up on the couch with Dust and the girls to either chat about our days or to completely veg in front of the tv.
I particularly enjoy the quiet before the storm, both relatively and figuratively. The minutes before anyone awakens in the morning and the moments before the girls walk inside after school are always cherished. While I enjoy the silence I also love the chatter, the giggling, the excited exclamations and explanations of occurrences certainly only experienced in a house full of girls.
Before bed each night I give thanks for the opportunity to be a wife and mother. I love kissing my sleeping babies and tucking the blankets around their sleeping bodies. I delight in Dustin's embrace, in his ability to calm my nerves by simply smiling and winking my way.

As much as I prefer a controlled lifestyle and set activity block I am realizing that 2013, the first half of it at least, is promising to be quite chaotic and absolutely up in the air. We will sort, pack, trash or sell every item in our house for a tentative closing date of February 22 (prayers for a guaranteed sale would be appreciated). We will store some items and move others into a temporary living facility/rental until the school year ends. We'll then pack up again and head west. Upon arrival in Provo we'll unpack one last time.
While it's guaranteed to be crazy, I am looking forward to the opportunity to majorly dejunk. I am an avid anti-hoarder. The trash can is one of my best friends. This will be, however, something I will run nearly singlehandedly. I don't dare rely on the girls...they wouldn't get rid of a thing!

Today I checked the mandated completion date of my History 319: The Family in Europe class. It is mid-September. For a measly $20 that date can be extended to mid-December. I'm thinking that with all the packing/dejunking/selling/storing I'll be doing, whilst babysitting a four month old baby boy, I might pay the $20. It just might be the best $20 I've ever spent.