Well it is 3 weeks since I posted a blog and 4 weeks since I did a Friday Five!
It's been busy here - my son and his family moved in with us on 1st May in preparation for their move to Vermont. There are things that need doing in the flat that meant it was easier for them to just move out and stay here for a bit.
But of course they wanted to keep some normality for the 2 children which meant Rory going to school and Vinny to nursery every day - a trek! We've tried to help out as much as possible so I've been taking them to a bus stop in the morning leaving the house at 7 am each day. This saved them one bus journey and made the remainder of the journey a little easier. I've also been helping out at the flat and doing some pick ups.
Thankfully our house is big enough to accommodate them but it has meant more planning for meals etc and a change to our lifestyle, albeit temporarily.
On Wednesday my DIL flew to Vermont with Rory. There were a lot of tears. They have arrived safely and will be getting the house there ready for the family and, hopefully, securing a job for my DIL. She's a teacher so hopefully there will be a job for her although it sounds like she will have to jump through hoops to prove her experience of teaching in the UK qualifies her to resume teaching in the US. Why do things have to be so complicated?
My son and Vinny are still here. My son is still working for another couple of weeks and completing the things that need doing in the flat so that it's ready to rent out. Vinny is still going to nursery. Packing up a home to move is hard but packing up to move abroad is harder still. And of course Vinny is sad that Mummy and Rory are not here. Bedtime has become a bit of a challenge.
But there are still things to be grateful for:
1) A fun day at the park on Sunday - it was a Spring Festival with lots going on and the weather was lovely - if anything slightly too warm. I'd volunteered to help set up in the morning and then I also helped out for a bit on the stall the Foodbank had. They had a couple of fun games they were using as fundraisers plus donation buckets and raised an amazing £800 pounds. With more people signing up to the Foodbank we need all the funds and donations of goods we can get right now.
2) A house that is big enough to accommodate my son and his family - we all have our own bedrooms and we're managing to cope with the extra people for meals, washing etc.
3) Safe travels for family members that flew to far away places this week. My daughter and her family are currently in Boston for a holiday break.
4) A husband that cooks - with all the extra things I've been doing it's definitely a blessing to know that dinner will appear without me having to do anything. (Well apart from a bit of planning and organising the shopping delivery lol)
5) Resilience. Today has been very stressful. I won't go into details but I had to deal with a situation that was unexpected, didn't go exactly to plan and involved a lot of driving around. But my mission is accomplished. I'm back home and I might even pour myself a glass of wine!
Have a good weekend all - we have an extra day as Monday is a Bank holiday but of course when you're retired all days are holidays! Hopefully I'll get a lie in but with Vinny here I might not. He came in for a snuggle one morning this week and his feet were like blocks of ice! One way to get woken up.
See more Friday Fave Five posts here. Thanks to our host Susanne.
