A year in my new home... REALLY?
As I look at the calendar, I see that the date that I moved out here has come and gone... Do I feel like I have been here that long? Yes, and no.
I feel like I lost the year before, from my old home; backing out of activities and commitments, going through my big house and downsizing, having a sale, and then packing up and dividing our belongings into His apartment and Our house... THAT year was a nightmare that thankfully ended when I arrived out here. I think I spent the first couple of months in recovery! It was interesting setting up a household for one, and making space for Hubby whenever he could come. Poor guy, he still feels homeless as his apartment is not very comfortable and his time out here has not really allowed him to settle in and feel at home - However! - with this Covid thing, he WAS out here for several weeks! I almost think that made it worse for him to go back....
So, what DID I do this past year? I rode a crazy wild roller coaster! At first it was kind of boring... no, actually REALLY boring. Sure I had a house to arrange and little projects to do all over the space, but not many friends (the few that I do know out here all work), and my son's family is here, but they have busy lives, too. I started to get connected with my hobbies and organizations, but that seemed to take forever to get to the meetings, fill out application for membership forms, jump through hoops to be approved... and just when all those things were coming together (in the middle of crappy winter weather), COVID hit.
My life took a 180* turn. (As did everyone else's!)
I had been isolated and lonely for months, and all of a sudden, I was keeping all THREE grandkids and hubby moved out here since he could't work in his Library. It was like going from the isolation ward into a circus! The total opposite of what so many other families were experiencing! It was fun, stimulating, and exhausting, all at once.
One thing that continued pretty much as planned was the building of the garden. It was nice to have Hubby here to help with some of that - he built the foundation for the shed and helped me with many of the raised bed frames, but he did go back to his place to work in May. And at about the same time, I went from watching the kids just during the mornings to full time as D-i-L went back to work, too.
MY GOODNESS! Now I know why we have kids while we are young! On the best days, the 2-year-old and the baby would take naps at the same time, so I could rest - allowing the 5-year-old his own TV time (yes, I was desperate enough to let TV be MY babysitter!). But most days I was lucky to get an hour to sit down while one child went down for a nap and the other decided to wait another good hour before they succumbed. But we made it through to July, when the parents decided it should be safe for the boys to go back to daycare. I still have Baby Girl and she is very easy and sweet.... taking a long nap in both the mornings and afternoons, and not interested in crawling. The parents think that a nanny might be a better idea soon... schools will surely be closed again, and I had to take one "sick day", whereupon they saw how vulnerable their child care arrangement really is....
But life goes on and IS ever-changing. Now I am busy with the garden (which is actually quite easy to manage) and beginning to harvest and preserve the goods. I am overrun with cucumbers but not the pickling varieties. Note to self: do NOT plant all of your cucumber seeds just because you have them! I had three different varieties of older cucumber seeds that I was afraid would not germinate well... the slicing Tyria variety has come through like gangbusters and there is no way that I can eat more than one a week. The pickling varieties have not done AS well; I can't seem to get enough in one picking to make a batch of pickles, but isn't that always the case?
Even though hubby was here for several weeks (or maybe because he was?) I am very anxious for him to get moved out here permanently. I had been afraid that having him around all the time after he retired would be a pain, and I think it would be.... but he still "worked" in a little office space he created down stairs and it worked out just fine. He does want to find a job out here, and I think that some kind of no-thinking, less responsibility retirement job would be just the ticket. Technically he would not be retirement age for another 18 months, but I hope he doesn't stay in his current job that long!!! He is miserable and I don't want that for him!
And so it goes....Nothing simple, nothing the same, and always changing. I'm not sure what this next year will bring, but we'll get through it!
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