A New Nest for a Pair of Oldies

 Long ago, I faithfully blogged our move to a "dream house" in the country and the majority of my posts were written there. But, as they say, "all good things must come to an end." While the house never quite worked or looked the way I wanted it to, it still felt like home. And then, as the kids moved out, it quit feeling that way. It took about a year to get Dave on board. I get it. There was so much untapped potential in the house-but I knew I wasn't the person for that scale of home renovation. And while Dave has a lot of those skills, most of his free time is dedicated elsewhere-much like mine. A major road construction project taking place along our only road to get home definitely worked in my favor and by the end of last year, the hunt was on!

Did you know that the Venn diagram of an aging married couple looking to downsize versus parents of college-aged kids looking to purchase an investment home for their kids to live in now and to rent to other college students later is a circle? I've lived in this college town-or just outside its city limits-for the majority of my life. In fact, Dave and I sold both of our previous homes to parents of college students. And yet, even I was surprised at the intense competition that it was to finally find, bid on, and purchase a new house. We finally closed on ours at the end of June, but it was almost August before we were consistently sleeping here. The Venn diagram may have been an unpleasant surprise, but the unexpected way all five of our kids stepped up to help us move, declutter, and downsize continues to warm my heart almost two months later. 

We opted to buy this house before even listing our other one. We knew the overhaul would take most of the summer, and it did. But last Saturday, Dave and I walked through it one last time before closing on our sale a few days later. It was less emotional than I thought it would be (I was really ready to move!), but still quite a milestone. There are entries upon entries in my archives about what we experienced in the house, so I don't feel the need to expand upon that much. 

Like most neurodivergent people, I can't do anything big or monumental without a theme song of some kind. And I had planned for this one to be "If These Walls Could Speak" by Amy Grant. But apparently, the brain wants what it wants, and I have spent the week singing this one instead. And I have to agree with my subconscious that it really is the right one for this phase of our life. It really does get better.

We Said Hello, Goodbye

by Phill Collins

We said goodbye to a dear old friend

And we packed our bags and left feeling sad

It's the only way

We said hello as we turned the key

A new roof over our heads, gave a smile

It's the only way, only way

Turn your head, don't look back

Set your sails for a new horizon

Don't turn around, don't look down

Oh, there's life across the tracks

And you know it's really not surprising

It gets better when you get there, oh

Well, it really don't matter much where you are

'Cause home is in your heart

It's a feeling that you wake with one day

Some people keep running all their life

And still find they haven't gone too far

They don't see it's the feeling inside

The feeling inside, oh

Turn your head and don't look back

Just set your sails for a new horizon

Don't turn around, don't look down

Oh, there's life across the tracks

And you know it's really not surprising

It gets better when you get there

We said, hello as we turned the key

A new roof over our heads

Gave a smile, it's the only way 

Wordless Wednesday: Summer Vacation Edition

A Sense Of Place #3

When my husband was trying to talk his way into a second date, he happened to glance around my apartment and spotted my three Star Wars Books. He offered to loan me the ones he had that I hadn't read yet. I read the books, went out on that second date, and the rest is history...

Don't let the picture fool you, there are two more shelves where this one came from...our Star Wars book collection has grown even more exponentially than our number of children in the last 13 years. I guess the force is with us.

A Sense of Place #3

It seemed a little bit like phoning it in to use this picture for both of the Flickr groups I belong to this week, so let me explain myself:

"I am not very organized at all and when my house gets messy my stress level shoots through the roof.

When it's really bad, I don't feel good physically or emotionally. I certainly don't feel at home here. This week's 52 Weeks goal was to accomplish as much as possible on each day's checklist to see if it would free my time to focus more on establishing other healthy habits. I have to say that I made some truly positive steps towards getting my house in order this week which not only made me feel very good physically, but also very happy with my home emotionally which I think ties into A Sense of Place perfectly.


Because I am often too overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done around my house each day and each week to even know where to start, I found these checklists at MotivatedMoms.com and downloaded them from there for $8. They don't have to be printed up and I am hoping to eventually internalize these lists enough not to have to do that. But for now I need to make that physical checkmark each day to feel like I've accomplished something. I've been working my way through this program since last November, and it's finally starting to show in my home."

A Sense of Place #2

This week's A Sense of Place entry:

"This is one of the biggest trees near my house. I'm hoping to remember to photograph it again during the Spring, Summer, and Fall months and post those pictures here for comparison."

A Sense of Place Week #1

I joined a photo group at Flickr in part to atone for dropping out of two last year once the morning sickness hit and mostly because I want to make sure I keep practicing with my camera (and with Photoshop Elements) until I can produce pictures that I like more consistently. I have to say I'm happy with the first result. Here is the picture and the accompanying description:

"Christmas 2009 gave us over a foot of snow as its gift. By New Year's, this was all that was left. Even though most of it was melted, I tried to make it look like more in this picture because this is the first time that my youngest child was outside to see it. She spent most of the previous week battling some upper respiratory crud that defied diagnosis. My go-to RSV fear was disproved with a test and and a relatively quick recovery. However, this was as close to the white stuff as I would allow her, even it if was her first snow and probably the only white christmas the Sooner State will see in either of our lifetimes."