Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real: End of an Era Edition

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life: every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

I have got the WORST writer's block I have EVER had (I think it's grief)!  I must have restarted this post a dozen times by now simply because I cannot think of how to narrate it (because of the grief and all)!  Just to give you an idea, the first few photos in it are now two months old!

Point in case (as Redheaded Snippet says--*sob*):

Pretty

See?  We all know that didn't happen this week!  But I am determined to just get this done so I can move the heck on and it's not HANGING OVER MY HEAD ANYMORE!  GAH...I'M A GRIEVING MOTHER!

So, yeah, she graduated, it was bittersweet, we're so proud, we're so sad, blah blah blah (only you know it's not blah blah blah and I'm trying to make light of it in the interest of saving some time and dignity, right?)...

And next thing we knew, we had crammed 18 years' worth of her stuff into the back of our car, driven her five hours away from our home, deposited her into a somewhat small, unpleasantly-lit room among an entire community of strangers and then left her there.  Don't get me started.  I mean it.  But isn't that window pretty?  I think she sat in it the entire time we were there.  She's going to get known as that weird girl who sits in her window.  And who gets a dorm room like this their Freshman year?  

Happy

Moving on, little detour, let's lighten the mood a little, this did happen this week.  Today, in fact.  So there.  There's an Air Force base not far from our new home and, today, a friend took The Vicar and Calvin for a tour of one of the hangars.

I swear there's a scene in Star Wars that looks just like this.  Pretty darn cool, eh?

What twelve-year-old boy isn't happy sitting in the cockpit of a military plane?  Oh, happy day, indeed.

Funny

The other morning I entered his room to wake him and found him sleeping with his foot popped like this.  Generally, I am against taking photos of people whilst they are asleep.  But this was too weird not to document and I knew no one would believe me later if I didn't have proof.  So I guess my needs outweighed his this time.  Bad Mommy.

Real

And we're back: the road trip to college.  The filled-to-capacity cargo area, the zonked out tween boy, and the unamused and rather bored college coed complete with ear buds (and misused seat belt!).  I can't believe she's gone.  It's been a week now and I keep thinking it's about time to go pick her up and bring her home.

Thanksgiving is so far away...  

Winds of Change

If anyone is paying any kind of attention to this poor, neglected blog of mine, they will notice that it's been nearly two months since my last post.  I hate when that happens.  I hate catching up.  It takes all manner of mental gymnastics and emotional calisthenics to find my groove again and I'm usually crippled by the fear of leaving something out and wrecking the nice, delicate order of things.

I do have some slight OCD tendencies.  Actually it's more an issue of perfectionism but that's a tangent we shall not follow today.

So.  Anyway.  There have been changes lately.  And bigger ones on the horizon.

-We have moved.  Into a vicarage (actually, only we and our Anglophile or Anglo-sympathetic friends call it the vicarage.  Everyone else calls it the parsonage).

-The Viking has made a complete career change and is now The Vicar (see note above)--Pastor of Music at our church.

-I am no longer homeschooling Calvin.  He will be attending the local public school come September.

-Redheaded Snippet has turned eighteen, graduated from high school, and is off to university in only one short week, leaving us forever.

Say it with me: WHOA NELLY.

I have been in a certain degree of emotional seclusion.  I tend to withdraw and ruminate when faced with stressful things, even good things.  I don't deal well with change and tend to get broody.  And that's when the blog goes silent.

But I am still here.  And I've been doing LOTS of thinking and praying and soul-searching.  And though I'm not sure, yet, but it's going to look like, I know change is coming, if it's not here already.

So please bear with me, if you're still here.

More to come.  Stay tuned...