Life flows

The last  real post I had here was in March. Since then things have been busy around here. This blog is really just for my own personal journaling, so filling in a few blank months will keep it on track.

A good portion of my time has been spent on Facebook. I don’t know why the short little blips on Facebook have replaced the writing here, as it seems so much easier to just plop in  a comment and leave. I just don’t seem to have the energy to write more than a few lines. As Facebook goes, I am wordy. Here, maybe not so much.

Big news for us—a new granddaughter is due to arrive in late August. We are excited. Cautiously excited. My son and daughter-in-law went through a miscarriage with the first pregnancy, so even though they are very happy and excited about this baby, I think in the back of their minds they are not letting themselves be too optimistic. They haven’t told us the short list for names. I think they will choose something very classic, just because that is their style. Our other granddaughters have very unique names, and that is their parents’ style.

We have had two new bovine members of the family this spring, a female and a male, not yet named, but very cute little Herefords. Merle is quite proud and happy about adding them to his herd. That makes an even dozen that he has now.

This little heifer (girl) calf needed some encouragement to nurse. The granddaughters were very willing to help.

But the biggest thing that is happening around here this summer is a renovation project. We have lived in this place for 15 years, and have not updated it at all. The house was built in 1988, and is showing its age. It was getting pretty shabby and outdated. There was water damage from the master bath which had damaged the kitchen ceiling. We had to decide if we were going to sell the house and downsize to a smaller place, or fix this one up a bit. Then we had to decide if we wanted to just fix it up to sell, or fix it to stay here for a while.

Despite the housing comeback in other areas of the country, apparently in our neighborhood, things have not quite bounced up yet. We had an estimate from a realtor, and decided for the price we could expect from a sale, we might as well stay here for a while. But if we were going to stay here, we wanted to fix it up so we could feel good about it, and to have it look better for a sale down the line. We decided we’d stay at least five more years. So we are renovating the master bath, fixing the kitchen ceiling, replacing the old dangerous deck and adding a screen porch on part of that, replacing the crumbling driveway, and repairing the woodpecker-damaged siding.  It has turned into quite the project. It is going slowly, as we are waiting for items to be delivered for the bathroom, but the decking has been coming along the last week or so.  I am looking forward to having my bathroom shower back sometime before the end of the summer. But this is the tub that I have on order:

Other updates are that we are traveling to see Merle’s 96 year-old aunt and his cousin this weekend. This is the trip that we are taking with our middle granddaughter. Her older sister took a trip with us when she was 7, so we have promised to take each of them on a big trip when they are seven years old. This trip is just for a four-day  weekend, but it is on an airplane. Her sister didn’t ride in an airplane. We are all looking forward to it. The bonus is that Merle’s aunt lives next door to Sam Elliot’s childhood home. His mother died within the past few years, but he still owns it with his sister. We’ve never seen him when we’ve visited in the past, but maybe this time?

Our youngest son will be finishing up his schooling for a teaching license in the fall, and will be student teaching next spring. He hopes to find a teaching job for the next school year. He is very excited about teaching , and I am sure he will be a great teacher. Their family will be moving to wherever he gets a job, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it might be closer to us, or to a place we’d like to live.

Our daughter and son-in-law are still in Philadelphia. His post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania will be finishing up this year, and he is searching for a tenure position. They hope to be closer to the west coast (“North of the Mason-Dixon Line”, as my daughter puts it. She says she will not live in the South.) She hopes to be able to start a little farm wherever they land. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it might be closer to us, or to a place we’d like to live.

Our oldest son and daughter-in-law will stay in the city. They love it and are close to her family. He seems settled in his career. I doubt that they would move any time in the foreseeable future.

It feels as though our children will soon be planted, to start sinking their roots. Families will be here,  and their homes will be established. Time is moving on, as Merle and I are thinking of selling our home and getting close to retirement.

In may ways it is a very strange time for us. In other ways, it feels just right.

 

 

 

Advertisement