This post is part of Ruth Ayres Celebrate Link up. Thanks, Ruth for this great opportunity to celebrate!

I’m not so good at changes. When I taught centers in second grade, I’d sing “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes” and then my para would sing “Turn and face the strange!” and the kids would switch. On my very last day of teaching 2nd grade, my alarm woke me up singing “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes; Turn and face the strange…” and I started sobbing. I also sobbed as the kids left that day, and most likely traumatized all of those 8 year olds! However, the next school year I was snug in my classroom as a 6th grade teacher with the amazing team that I still teach with today. I don’t know what I’d do without them. I try to remind myself of this whenever change is afoot; that celebrations are coming!

There’s not enough wood to knock, Kinehoras to mutter, lucky clovers to find, Buddah bellies to rub for me to start celebrating a move we may be making in the near future. If hoops get jumped through, t’s get crossed, i’s get dotted… I might soon start walking to school, and it’s possible we will need a few pieces of furniture.

Regardless of whether or not I’ve started looking on Pinterest for things like “DIY fireplace redo” and “moving checklists,” I’m simply not ready to celebrate. I am keeping myself in check. If it doesn’t work out (that move we might be doing soon, knock on wood) it wasn’t meant to be, and everything will be okay. It’s not like I love the house or anything. (I’m lying. Knock on wood.)

What I can celebrate is: The people who are about to move into my house. I don’t know if they are anything like what we were like when Mr. Thought and I  were in our early twenties, getting ready to move into our first house (this one! this very house!) but I’m going to assume there must be some similarities. I wonder if they drive by with dreams of paint colors and furniture. Are they planting gardens in their mind and boring all their friends with their plans for funky decorations? Are they saving their pennies for closing (wait, that never changes.. we’re doing the same right now!)

What I can celebrate is: All we have done to this house. When we moved here, the paint was peeling, and everything was a very odd shade of green. There were so many little holes in the walls, and the living room ceiling bowed in the middle. There was no split system air conditioner, or newly renovated kitchen. The kitchen in fact, had contact paper countertops. (Which I didn’t notice until we actually moved in!) The wiring was knob and tube! You could feel cold air blowing through the walls and the old wooden windows. There was only one bathroom… and oh…the bathroom! It was purple with crazy wallpaper, a very small claw foot tub, and exposed pipes. No exhaust fan meant that weird bathroom dust was always clinging to the walls, and behind those pipes. The painted wooden floor was quaint until you tried to clean it.

What I can celebrate is:  Change. We’ve made guest rooms into craft rooms into offices into nurseries, into bedrooms. We’ve made closets into nurseries and bathrooms. We’ve made bathrooms into laundry rooms and laundry rooms into pantries. We’ve made living room walls into libraries. We’ve made a house a home. Now we are about to make a huge change… (maybe, knock on wood, where’s the four leaf clover?) and I choose to celebrate this crazy time!