Posted in Moments and Musings

Move with Me: 5 Weeks to Go

Annoyance. I love my current home but little things I once found so endearing are starting to annoy me.

Like every time someone goes out the side door and lets it slam shut rattling my patio windows.

Like listening to those stupid geese each night.

Like listening to my neighbors talk on their cell phone loudly in the courtyard at midnight.

Like finding other people’s underwear in my laundry.

Like paying $2 to wash one load of laundry and $1.75 to dry it.

Like walking from the parking lot, which is located at the opposite end of where my unit is, just to get into my own home.

Like people not picking up after their dogs.

All the things I won’t deal with in my new home. Of course, being a homeowner brings its own set of challenges. I’m ready to face those because I won’t be doing it alone. It’s a comfort to me not to be the sole “adult” in my living situation. I haven’t had that since my mom died.

Any-to-the-who….I’ve regained my sense of organization where this move is concerned. The office is now completely packed, except for essentials so now, all boxes can go in there. I may move my desk into my bedroom to completely clear out the office.

I’ve also started the “things to move by hand” box. Anything delicate goes in there. My bedroom closet and the office closet is all cleared out and packed also. I like being able to look around and know there’s nothing hiding away waiting to be boxed up.

Shelby and I also took the kids (aka Percy, the dog, and Natasha, the cat) to the vet to ensure they were all up to date on their vaccinations. Not only for their continued good health but also because we’ve booked their overnight stays in a pet hotel for the move weekend. Percy would only bark his fool head off and Natasha would hide where we wouldn’t be able to find her. I have to say I’m still nervous about this as this will be the first time I’d be leaving Percy overnight with someone I didn’t know. But the reviews are excellent and it gives me peace of mind not to have them underfoot.

As excited as I am, however, I’m also taking the time to slow down a little. With 5 weeks to go and 60% of the apartment packed up, I can afford this. My walks with Percy are longer now that the weather is nicer. I’m noticing the buds on the trees. There’s a pink tulip bud about to open in the tulip bed in front of my building. I’ve noticed more growth on Grandmother Willow and the grass is started to get greener (well, what’s not covered in goose poop, that is).

The weather is typical Spring Midwest weather. The kind where you need hat, scarf and gloves in the morning and shorts and a tank top in the afternoon. We’ve already had temperatures up to 75 degrees accompanied by storms. And this weekend, they’re calling for 1-3 inches of snow. Very typical weather.

Each year since Mom passed has brought some huge change of one kind or another. And it’s all been good. I’m really looking forward to this one!

Posted in Moments and Musings

This New Season

A few short years ago, both my girls were planning to get a place of their own. I sat looking through apartment listings (just for fun), looking at one-bedroom places and dreaming of how I would decorate it without any input from anyone else. I pinned meals “for the single gal” to my Pinterest page and thought about how grand it would be to have the whole TV all to myself.

I could do what I wanted when I wanted. The ultimate single life.

We moved in here and shortly after, Emilie got married. And then there were two.

Emilie has always been my “big idea” girl. Big dreams. Bigger plans. So full of sparkling conversation. She outwardly expresses everything and this lead to hours upon hours of endless chatter. She filled my days with talking. I honestly can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t talking. So many late night talks, some full of fear but most filled with faith and a lot of tears.

But Shelby isn’t like that. She doesn’t have huge dreams.

Shelby works an overnight job and sleeps during the day. She has her own set of nerdy friends she prefers to spend time with, which is very normal for a girl like her. I want to give her that
space. I don’t want her to feel like she’s her mother’s entertainment committee. The few times she’s decided to spend her day with me has been a gift and I’ve made the most of it. Her big ambition right now is to work, make some money, and play video games with her friends. Even when she is with me, she’s quiet. There’s never been a ton of conversation that’s
happened between us.

So, my home when from being loud to being very quiet.

In the beginning, I took advantage of it. But it wasn’t long before conversations with Jesus
turned into mindless chatter with either myself or with the dog. (He doesn’t ever engage. He usually just licks himself and finds a new comfortable space on my chair.)

Now, that season is ending. I just bought a house with my sister. And my other sister (there’s four of us girls in my family) will be moving in with us along with Shelby. My very quiet, boring existence is about to be replaced with conversation and activity once more.

I can’t wait!

Moving to my current home was a huge blessing. We moved right in the middle of 2020 from a super small apartment to this one. My old apartment was only a mile away from the home we shared with my mom for 12 years. It was the home that healed us from a painful divorce. It was my mother’s house and for 12 years, we were secure and stable.

Then we lost her and everything changed.

The two years we spent in that first apartment after she died were so full of grief and pain and adjustment and just emptiness. We had no family nearby. My girls and I clung to each other and together, we held onto Jesus. But that grief – it was so hard to heal. I remember when we moved into this place, it almost felt like I was leaving my grief behind. So much closer to my sister, this place gave me breathing room, and not just literally.

It changed everything.

Being close to people who I loved and who loved me was the healing balm I needed. We healed together, in a way. God blessed us so much in this place and in this current season.

God gave me this season and I have not squandered it.

But now it’s time for the next step in my life. To go back to living in a space where I can put color on my walls and have my own laundry (it’s the little things). I won’t just be close to family; I’ll be living with family and closest I’ve been to my dad and stepmom in decades.

The challenge now is to stay in an attitude of gratitude. I’ve got just under 2 months until we move into our house – hopefully, our forever home.

Seasonal transitions are hard because the closer you get to the new season, the less tolerant you are of the season you’re in. It’s easy to get edgy and start to dislike what once was a blessing.

I’m determined not to let that happen to me. I love my home. I love every minute here. And before I leave, I want to pray over it, touch each wall and walk its floors one more time. I want to leave a bit of Jesus here. I want the next family to feel peace, love, comfort, and healing when they want through the door – just as I did.

When I get to my new home, I’ll do the same. Touch the walls. Walk the floors. Speak Jesus to it all. This home was a home of healing but the next home…that will be a home full of joy!

Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash