They’re here!

Just popping in to say a quick hello. The last couple of days have been BUSY – my parents “officially” moved in yesterday!!

I cut out of work early by around 3 on Thursday and drove to their old house and we spent the whole evening packing and carting things out of the basement. I stayed overnight Thursday and drove back at 7 am before work (with my van full of a load of odds and ends that are hard to pack for the movers.) The movers arrived at 8:30 Friday morning.

My poor parents are exhausted. Our Zion/Vegas trip right in the middle of this all did not do them any favors- it drastically reduced the amount of leg work time they had available to get ready to move! Meaning they’ve being going non-stop for the last ~2 weeks. All the logistics of moving (financial stuff, accounts to switch, insurance quotes, etc etc.) plus of course just packing up where they’ve lived for over 20 years now, which is SO MUCH STUFF.

They are not minimalists at all (ha) and honestly just have a lot of…. things. My dad also has “equipment heavy” hobbies- he’s an amateur radio operator and had a whole room in their basement full of nerdy toys like antennas and radios and other things I don’t understand. PLUS he brews beer and wine for fun (had a whole other room full of that stuff), plus an entire “work room” full of approximately 1 million tools, a table saw and so much more.

My mom has severely way too many clothes and “can’t part with any of them” 🙄 and has quite a lot in the way of holiday decor, regular decor, boxes and boxes of our old photo albums and more. (I unearthed a “travel iron” that she was planning to move. I was like, MOM have you used this in the last 10 years?! (Who takes an iron on vacation?!!? I don’t ever even iron at home!!) She said, “No, but it could come in handy…”. WRONG ANSWER. lol.)

(Ok before she reads this and gets mad at me, I will say, in their defense, they did also purge a lot of things and my mom has made countless trips to Goodwill to donate things. So they actually did pretty well overall. But they still have so much stuff!!!!)

Anyway, it’s been a ton of work for them and I think they’re sort of hanging on by a thread, but the end is getting nearer. I guess I had thought that the movers would basically come in and do everything, but in reality, there’s so much they still had to do first. The movers apparently would mostly just move things ready to go (ie things in boxes).

My parents still easily do all of these activities, but the problem here is the intensity. If they had a month or two to slowly chip away at everything, that would be a different story. But obviously the buyer of their house wants to get in! So they’re having to go go go non-stop to meet deadlines and it’s just been a lot.

The movers got most things in yesterday but are doing a final load today. I have to head out now- I’m going back to the old house with my parents to help grab final items and do some cleaning there. Then, I’ll drive my mom’s car back!

It’s all so exciting! We did manage to go out for a well-deserved pizza and beer with them last night after the movers and the internet guy left, haha. We toasted their new chapter in a new place!!! I’m really thrilled for them! The house is beautiful and I think they’re going to love it! 🙂 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that the move is underway and so far, so good. 🙂

Bonus:

I absolutely love this quote I saw in James Clear’s newsletter this week. SO GOOD.

“Learn to love the interruptions. Find the fun in the delay, the humor in the challenge, the pleasure in the daily commute.

A great deal of life is spent dealing with interruptions and waiting for the conditions to turn. We think, “If I can just get past this, then things will open up.” But the interruption is not standing between you and your life. It is your life.

Yes, I prefer hassle-free days too. But you’ll rarely find a situation that is all bad. There are little pockets of joy folded inside the annoyances we face. There is always fun to be had, if you go looking for it.

This is one of the arts of living. It’s the art of enjoying the imperfect days. It’s the art of making all the moments count.”