We're back!

It's been a while since I've updated here. Due to how busy our days are with the move, I haven't had much time to blog! We've been working on getting the house straightened up and all "moved in", slowly going through boxes and fixes all the little things that you don't notice until you need them (for instance, upon installation of our home phone and Internet, we discovered there are no working phone jacks in the house! A brief visit with a technician allowed us to temporarily thread the cords through a spare bedroom window- thank goodness-until we can get one installed.) We've also been hard at work planning our first real vegetable garden (more on that later). But now, things are calming down a bit, and I am hard at work getting back up to speed with our daily routines as well as blogging!




Peanut has done pretty well with the move. As long as she has Mommy and her breastmilk, she's good to go! I have noticed, however, that she is not all the way used to the new house, and she has definitely noticed something is different, which shows when she gets super needy and cannot bear to have you sit her down! I think she just isn't all that comfortable with all the rooms yet, although it is getting better every day.


One significant improvement over the last couple of weeks is that Peanut is now napping predictably. This is huge, since she previously would only nap for 20 minutes at a time. Better naps also means better sleep at night, and she is now only waking 1-2x at night instead of 3-6x! One night last week, she actually slept through the night without any night wakings! It was so wonderful!

She hasn't begun crawling yet, but she is getting into the position and trying! Most of the time, she just face plants herself into the ground when she tries to move forward, which usually ends up in bouts of crying! She will army crawl towards objects, and I think it's only a matter of a few weeks before she is cruising all over the house. We need to get some child gates for sure!


It's amazing to see the changes in her, and witness her budding personality. It's hard to believe she is no longer my tiny little newborn, but a soon-to-be toddler!

The New Campbell Castle

On Friday, we closed on our very first home! We are beyond excited to own a home with a garage, a driveway and a backyard, and oh yes, 4 sides of windows! The Campbell Castle is more than just a unit now - it's an entire property complete with a moat (ok, so there's not a moat, but the fact that we could add one is terrific!).

One of reasons we love our new house is the impressive amount of natural light that shines through. See this picture? No artificial lights! Hooray!

This past weekend, we begun the work of preparing our move into the new home with necessary cleaning and painting. The house seemed like it hadn't been cleaned in years, but with a lot of enthusiasm, hard work and sore bodies later, we've made significant progress in getting the house ready. So far, we have painted the Master, the living room and the hallway. It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for a room! The above photo is a before shot - I'll share an after photo after we have moved in and I've fixed it up.

It's going to be wonderful not only to be in our own home finally, but also to be near family. Already we have had such a stream of visitors willing to lend a helping hand! It's a blessing to have so many wonderful family members nearby, one that we will never take for granted again.

Peanut enjoyed the extra attention like always, and she took amazingly long naps in her new room while we were there! I think she is going to love the new house as much as we do!

The next few weeks will be busy with all the packing and planning for the big move. By far, this will be the biggest move we've ever attempted, but I'm sure everything will go smoothly provided we don't get too stressed! At least peanut is here reminding us to calm down and take breaks!

New Year Craziness

It's been a busy month for the Campbell Castle. Not only have we been traveling across the country to visit family, but we're also in the process of yet another move. This time, we're moving back to my hometown in Ohio to be near family. It will likely be our final move for the next 5-10 years. We're very much looking forward to settling down once and for all!

At the moment, we are in the middle of house-hunting. Needless to say that has taken up much of our free-time! Although this will be our first house, the process has actually gone much smoother than we anticipated, partly because we had already house-hunted before in the past. However, it does take a lot of time and can get stressful- I'm thankful I have a wonderful sister who works in real estate to help answer all the myriad of questions!

In anticipation of the big move, I have been decluttering our apartment like crazy. This is not your normal decluttering either - 6 large trash bags made their way to the goodwill donation drop off just last week and more have piled up near our front door waiting for their turn. I am going room by room and finally pitching many items I have been hanging on to for far too long. Nothing is exempt from my intense scrutinizing! Not even the cats! (Ok, well, at least not their toys...) It feels so much better already. I don't want to move needless boxes/weight/stuff/clutter into our new home. My plan is to eliminate future clutter buildup by being on the offense and embracing a more minimalist lifestyle. So far so good!