Oh goodness. When people start checking up on you (thanks Terri) you know it's time to get a blog post done. And Friday is always a good day to do that as it means taking a pause and thinking about the things we have to be thankful for.
Thanks to our host Susanne for reminding us to do this each week and share our posts here.
1) There is light at the end of the tunnel that is "getting my son's flat ready for renting".
The last few weeks have just blurred together as we've cleared, stored, sold, or thrown out all the things in the flat. There are still a few bits and pieces to deal with but first we have to finish all the cleaning, decorating and all the other things that are required before it can be handed over to the letting agent to take care of. There is also a large pile of boxes almost ready for shipping to the US.
Their flight to the US is booked for the 11th July so we are counting down the days.
Still time to spend with cousins.
2) My son's work ethic and parenting skills. It's been a tough time since our DIL and grandson Rory left for Vermont on 22nd May but Michael has risen to the challenge and is doing a great job single parenting Vinny and doing what needs to be done with the flat. As you can imagine it's been hard. Vinny misses his Mummy and brother and although being able to talk to them over the internet mostly helps it can also have the opposite effect too. There have been lots of tears.
We've revisited skills we haven't used for a while such as painting and also gained new ones - today between us we fitted a new timer switch to their water heater that is much more user friendly than the old one.
3) Hubby and I reached the milestone of 40 years married a couple of weeks ago. We had originally planned to go away for the weekend to celebrate together quietly. Instead we took advantage of a local yard sale to try and get rid of some of our son's "stuff". We did sell some things but our garden room and garage are now full of things that we still need to dispose of. I'm not even going to think about that until the flat is sorted, we have our house back to ourselves and we've had a break from all the current stress.
4) My DIL has secured a teaching job in Vermont. She will start in August and it has the added bonus of pre-school provision for Vinny. It's a 30 minute drive from their house but that's about half the time she used to commute here on public transport. That's a huge weight off their shoulders as you can imagine.
5) Easy meals, takeaways, dinners from the freezer and a grandson that really isn't too fussy. The days start early - Vinny is usually up around 6-6.30 am and then we've been at the flat most days until it's time to collect Vinny from nursery and get home for dinner. And of course a Hubby who cooks. And chocolate! Needed a lot of chocolate these last few weeks.
Of course all of this hasn't left much time for blogging and I really haven't had the headspace for it either.
Have a good weekend all - we'll be taking a breather before getting back to the "to do" list on Monday!