It was all for this

This weekend was a pretty quiet one, and I must say it’s the first weekend with the kids where everything felt truly normal.  When my boyfriend came home with them and told me that they were not allowed any TV or video games, as per their mom’s punishment, I have to admit, I was worried.

I can deal with them throwing a fit due to us saying no or punishing them, but I hate it when she decrees a weekend long punishment during one of our weekends, and we get to deal with the fits, as well as having our activities restricted.

But it all worked out, there was a big baseball tournament all weekend, so my BF took the boys to that, and us girls stayed at home and watched Tangled for the 50 millionth time.  When they were at home, the kids played outside in the backyard, or semi-quietly in their rooms, and all I could think to myself was, it was all for this.

All the stress, work, and frustration of the first 6 months of the year, finding a new place, planning the move, shopping for their rooms, working an extra job to pay for all of the little extras that I wanted for them, but weren’t exactly necessary, dealing with the ex’s jealousy that we could afford to live in the bigger apartment in the nicer neighbourhood that she can’t because she refuses to work.

All of that was to make this weekend happen.  It was so that we could have the backyard that the kids could run and play in instead of the back alley/street that we had at the other place, so that we could have bedrooms and beds for all the kids, instead of an air mattress in the living room, So that we could eat at a table instead of on the living room floor, so that they could have their space, and we could have ours.

I relished in watching them do simple things, like getting their clothes from their drawers, even watching them leave their shoes lying around.  To me these were all signs that the kids felt at home.  Before, at the other apartment, they would ask for permission for every little thing, not here, here they know where stuff is, and they help themselves whenever they can.

The youngest is at an age where everything is ‘one’ or ‘a lot’, and she happily says she has ‘a lot’ of homes, and my heart grows three sizes every time I hear it.

It was all for this, and it was worth it