… and we no longer: have a mortgage … have to worry about outside maintenance … have to rake leaves … have to futz with the ever-longer commute! We are moved from the Lake. We are now 15 minutes from school and it is amazing how much that affects all our attitudes. We’ve already started filling in the time, of course, including starting up a Knitting/Crocheting club and a Business Leaders Club. But I still get home and it is light out … I leave in the morning and it is light out.

God is so very, very good to us!

We had Open House on Sunday 11/13 at school and so couldn’t do much packing (altho dd Catie packed most of the kitchen for us … LOVE that kid!). We had an almost two-hour commute home that day since there had been a horrific accident on I95 just south of school that had the highway closed for an hour or so. Yuck!

Monday and Tuesday were pretty easy days … school and finishing up the packing as much as we could as the movers came on Wednesday. Tuesday night, Rick took JP to basketball practice while I had Maggie and Thomas with me for Varsity Sports Awards night. Thomas got his letter for football and I helped with the distribution of awards for volleyball. Maggie stayed in the library and studied since we didn’t leave till after 8.

Wednesday, Rick and Thomas took the day off to meet the movers and haul incidentals up to the townhouse. JP, Maggie and I met them there and helped unpack while Rick and Thomas made another trip back down and back with some more loose stuff. We started sleeping at the townhouse so Thursday was a great day as it only took 30 minutes to take JP to school and then head up to the high school in the morning; the afternoon “commute” from the high school was 15 minutes.

Friday, JP had rehearsal for his confirmation so Rick and he headed back south while Thomas, Maggie and I headed to the townhouse to meet the Comcast guy so we could (finally) have cable and, more importantly, wi-fi at the townhouse! It’s amazing just how much we rely on being able to instantly check weather, traffic, emails, and basic research on things … and how much we missed it when we didn’t have it for a couple of days!

Saturday, JP received the Sacrament of Confirmation at 10:00am. Retiring Bishop Loverde celebrated the sacrament and gave an awesome homily about the sacrament and the need for the teens to understand just what it means to be a Soldier for Christ. We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant with family and friends and then Catie took the kids to a movie so Rick and I could finish the cleanup of the Lake house in preparation. Heading to 6pm Mass for the last time at St. Patrick’s Parish was a bittersweet time – it was ironic that Sunday was the Feast of Christ the King, the end of the liturgical year. Next weekend, the start of Advent and a new liturgical year, will be the first Sunday for us in a new parish. Pretty cool, eh?

Sunday was our final trip to the house to meet the owners and give them keys and garage door openers and wish them well. Seeing the house for the final time, with its large wooden-floored rooms and studio that Rick built from the screened-in porch and the dining room with its new opening and all the landscaping we’d done and the fact that I lived there longer then anywhere else since I was 20. 7-1/2 years in one spot … a spot with lots of good and bad memories.

A tough way to end the week … but the silver lining of knowing that we will make all new memories … that we are together and closer to our loved ones at the school … that we are loved by a God who sees and knows.

Life is so very, very good!

Blessings to you all … and thanks for all the prayers and good wishes for the sale of the house, our move and our next adventures!