My father died in 2017 leaving me parentless and wandering. I was 45 years old and once the dust settled from his care, dealing with the estate and a lifetime of memories, attempting to deal with my overwhelming grief, I looked around at what was working and what was not. Unfortunately, the "nots" outweighed pretty much everything. Months had gone by during the process of losing my father. At that point I began telling my husband that our lives had to change. Our daughter was in a nightmare situation with her school and high level incompetence that created a situation where her entire class permanently left. Our son was seemingly thriving on the outside but not on the inside as he watched the trauma unfold. Our marriage was struggling and to be honest, we were all simply unhappy. I woke up each day wondering why we lived so far from family, how things had gotten so off track and why our life was so difficult.

​

I knew things needed to change for our survival. 

​

Then. Covid.

​

According to the USPS data, nearly 16 MILLION people moved during 2020. That trend has continued and now the dust is finally beginning to settle. For many, it was "a great reset". Suddenly our daily commutes became a distant memory. My desire to be anywhere besides where we were had been festering for a couple of years. In 2020, we began to dig deep and have a better understanding of what was occurring for our family. It wasn't easy and it was a long process. Despite Covid, the cogs had begun turning and propelling us toward this move.  

​

Scroll down for my blog posts on our renovation plus the messiness of midlife.