Moving From There To Here

As I was saying in my last post, moving was not all fun and games.  I am sure most of you have moved at some time or the other and know that the excitement of moving to a new home is sometimes outweighed by the hard work involved in the process.

Our house was an old, two-story home with a fenced in yard.  We had three buildings in the backyard and my husband had a pretty good sized shop.  All the buildings were full.  There were boxes of stored clothes, papers, pictures and such.  There was quite a few pieces of furniture that was no longer being used.   One building housed the lawnmower, weed eater and other such machinery.  Another building housed hoes, rakes and other gardening tools.  One building held wood for the woodstoves.  Howard’s shop was full of power tools and such.  Very little of these things could come with us in the move.  We would no longer have a yard to keep up or a place to store a lot of things “in case” we might want them.  We could, of course, have rented a storage unit, but that seemed like an unneeded expense to house things that had not been needed for many years.  We sold a lot of the things, gave some to family and had to trash things that had dry rotten.  It was, to say the least, a big job in itself.

The house was a whole different matter.  Mother wanted to take everything she had in drawers, boxes, storage containers and closets.  It was a chore to pack things without her knowledge of things we had to get rid of.  She has not let us forget it!

Howard and I also had sacrifices to make.  I am a book nut.  I had to go through all my books and only bring the ones that meant the most to me.  Howard had to sell all the tools that took him years to acquire.  We sorted through clothes, books, tools and other items and finally got down to the bare nubs of things to bring.  I shed a few tears over some of it, but, in actuality, have not missed them since we moved.  I may reminisce over some in years to come, but probably will never really need any of it.

We were fortunate to have a couple of his brothers and a sister-in-law to help us with the packing and moving and cleaning and all the things involved in moving.  Without them it would not have gotten done as soon as it did if at all.

We put all the things in one area that we were not bringing with us and had the kids come over and get what they wanted.  It actually surprised me at the things they wanted.  By the time they were through, most of it was gone.  I was glad someone was going to have some of the things and would appreciate the sentiment of them.

When I was a child, I remember seeing movies where staircases were decorated for Christmas.  It was always my dream to have a house to do this with.  I have shared pictures of Christmases past where I did this and it was so much fun.  As I have gotten older and my MS and Crohn’s has taken their toll on my body, it had gotten to be a chore rather than a pleasure to do this each year.  I could not go up and down the stairs by myself, clean much, cook much or really enjoy a big old house.  I guess part of my tears have been for the end of a part of my dreams and trying to come to grips with reality.  It is a thing we all must do, but that does not mean it is easy.

This condo does have so many good points.  I can walk all over the home without having to call my husband to take me.  I have access to everything and can cook, clean and relax when I have the opportunity to do so.  Instead of being pretty much restricted to one area of my home, I have a whole home to roam around in.  It is such a pleasure for me to get up in the morning and fix my own coffee.  The simple things in life are very precious in this time of my life.  Like most of you, “normal” is more often than not a part of our day.  I am trying to learn to appreciate the small things and not worry about the things I can no longer do.  There are a lot of “flowers” to smell and things to enjoy in each day and I have decided that it is my life’s purpose to find them!

A few pictures of our new home!