Clearing Out

The house is nearly empty. The second and third floor are cleared out, cleaned and the paint touched up. There is only Bono's crib left in his room up there... he won't sleep anywhere else. We have tried having him sleep with us in what used to be the living room (now a sea of air mattresses) but he just bounces from bed to bed and lands on as many sleeping heads as he can. Once put in his crib, he turns himself off and is fast asleep.

Now that the kids are home from school they have writing assignments in their journals that I have provided them. Each night they write about what is on their mind, what they feel about the move, and then they draw a picture about what they wrote. Liam took a long time last night. He wrote that he loves our fancy kitchen and then took great detail in drawing every drawer, cabinet, stove detail... on and on. Riley drew all her friends. Fionn drew the yard and the camper-- looked like a bunch of dots and circles. Grass and wheels, he reports.

Sean has left us again to Rome. He has barely been home and going through this whole change without him has been hard on everyone. When we have needed our sense of security, we have had to turn within ourselves. My mood has been irritable and without patience. I sit on the steps leading to the kitchen and admire the detail in the crown moulding that Sean had put up a few years ago. Leaving this house is more than saying goodbye to all the children's first, it is also leaving the loving detail that my husband laid out throughout the home.

I called him as he arrived the airport and I told him, "Thank you for all the years in this house, for every detail you gave us to enjoy. You have given us your very best and our home has been beautiful." He replied, "You are welcome, Love."

So, it is time to journal again and to start planning our future. It starts in five days.