Reality Check
The past few weeks have been a slow blur, alternating between more things to do than time to do them in, and interminable waiting. It hasn’t been particularly dreamy, but it has been a chance to test my capabilities.
As soon as we got a date for moving, I set to work getting our house ready to sell. Because I actively (operative word) live in it with three small persons, that was a process of not only making improvements but also heading off destructions.
So I rented a carpet cleaner and did the kids’ rooms… and I finally figured out why the little one persistently pours water on his floor, and instead redirected him to kitchen sink science.
I spent days primering over graffiti and touching up scuffed (and worse) walls… and also steering kids out of wet spaces and into dry ones.
I did the yearly spring bug-proofing, and planted some pretty kitchen herbs in a big empty pot by the front door… and also reapplied bug spray after a stash of fruit snack wrappers was discovered under a kid’s bed, only after the ants had found them and told their friends.
I got everything clean and tidy and presentable for photos and showings… and kept it that way, mostly by spending a lot of time at the park (which meant I couldn’t be doing any of the other pressing tasks on my list).
I approved showing requests and hustled kids out of the house multiple times a day in a way they found fun rather than disruptive… and also made sure they did school everyday.
I had a long weekend by myself to continue clearing out unmoveables… which I did, despite also spending those three days dealing with a tire (flattened courtesy of a pothole disguised as a puddle).
On the one day between getting it ready for pictures and the showings beginning, I sat down and read an entire book, because I do not have time for a burnout crash and there wasn’t really anything that needed doing that day anyway. I also went to a bookclub meeting, to see my people one last time before finding new people elsewhere, and to a live orchestra performance of the movie Jurassic Park, which I bought a ticket to a month ago before I knew how busy I’d be (and I’m very very glad I did).
I have absolutely no idea, in a concrete way, what the next few weeks will hold. Somehow we’ll need to finalize a house sale, find a place to rent (since the window for buying has closed), arrange movers, and get ourselves halfway across the country. I don’t know how any of that is going to happen, but I’m also confident it will all work out, and the sun will shine out the clearer on the other side.