Time flies!

 Okay,

The last time I wrote in this archaic piece of social networking was back in the summer of 2017!

Most of you, who will read this, stay up to date on face space anyways...so no need to recap the last 3 years....

Now that summer is officially over with, (did it really even start?!) everyone is adjusting to a whole new normal with back to school and wondering what the holiday season this fall might look and feel like.

Except....I'm having to adjust to a very new normal. A normal which entails having one of the kids grandmothers living only minutes away. I WISHED to have the fun luxury of memories past when visiting a grandparent happened with the use of a car....instead of walking down the hallway.

This grandmother, would of course, be my own mother. Since moving away in 2006 and the yearly 1 month visit she would make once the grandbabies started arriving....Matt and I have never had the blessing of a near by familial helper with the kids...until now.

Folks....we can have date nights happen more often then 2 or 3 times a year! Not that we've gone anywhere super special on these occasions. I mean, the super Walmart or Costco brings its charm....but no candle lit dinners on linen table cloths where the only "high chair" you'll find is up at the bar.

.....But with every new change in life, comes the passing of an old.

Just this month, my childhood home is now pending with an investor to be rented out. It had sold to a neighbor who was either going to be a landlord or flip it, as it helped meet the need of a long term project to stay busy during this time of quarantine.

Several years prior, I felt there was a need to start letting go of the idea of being able to hang on to the house once mom physically moved out...either to a home or eternally. six years had passed since I had last visited. Life, babies, new family being found...new chapters and lack of extra cash to get away made pushing off travel inevitable.

This flaming dumpster pile of a summer forced me to dive deep into the realities of what its like to get serious about the changing of the care taking roles between child and parent. I was grateful to find a buyer so easily with someone we knew. Grateful to know mom's new place in Indiana would be afforded with the house sale money. If only it was Matt and I being the buyer and renting or selling it to people we knew and being a blessing.

 A month was spent clearing the house out, filling a truck and selling of what retail treasures mom had amassed. It was hard to believe I was stepping on "virginal" portions of garage floor! Never had I seen how open and empty the garage had become after all the sweat equity I had put in.

In the last days leading up to our departure, lots of pictures were taken. Silly, but views from windows like my bedroom where the sun would rise and great me with my 6:30 am alarm of the Jeff n' Jer radio showgram starting with "Lovely Day" during highschool and college.

Now, I look at the listing pictures with the walls painted, fixtures changed, outside landscaping taken out or re-shaped....

No more character I once knew.

No more juicy naval oranges from the tree mailed out at Christmas.

No more care packages from mom with the old return address.

The house will now go back to being rented out, which I believe is what it was used for prior to mom buying the 2 house property back in 1980. Yet, God brought a friend into my life in HS where it was her mother who had first lived in this house built in 54'. Same bedroom in fact!

Indiana is where I now call home. Despite the kids having made a big move they will remember....its my responsibility to make this new place, the place they can call home when they've made the transition to adulthood and move out on their own.

A new home where holiday gatherings have started to grow with more love and family near by, as Matt's mom will be retiring and moving within driving distance next summer.

I use to grow up with no near by family....now family is finally coming to us.