Hope all you Mom’s out there had a nice Mother’s Day!

Bill and I did make some positive progress on the “plan” over the weekend!  Saturday we spent some time in the garage sorting and cleaning out.  I cut the grass (again – this is getting really old already and I’ve only cut it 3 times!) Bill made some repairs to the sidewalk, the winter was really hard on it.

Sunday we left early and drove to my brother-in-laws.  He is being extremely generous and letting us put a 40′ shipping container on his property to keep all the stuff we want to store in.  As much as I know we are going to love being on the road, I am also thinking at some point we might want to settle back down and I don’t want to have to buy all new stuff (as fun as that sounds, I really do love most of my stuff!)  We are planning to keep my dining room set, my bedroom suite, MAYBE basement furniture (it’s the newest and best liked), and spare room dressers (which were my kids dressers when they were kids.)  Bill also wants to keep some larger tools that we will not be able to bring.  Just enough to get us started if/when the time comes and we find ourselves buying a “sticks and bricks” again.  (that’s how full-time Rv’ers refer to a regular house)

So, Bill had some fun with his brother driving the bob-cat thing to spread out the blue stone as a base for the container and I helped Susan paint picnic tables.

When all the work was done, we changed into our non-work clothes and drove down the shore for the rest of the afternoon.  I LOVE the Jersey shore.  If you are from New Jersey, you don’t “go to the beach” you “go down the shore”.  Since it was such a beautiful day, we wanted to walk on the boardwalk, and our favorite boardwalk is Ocean City.  There is also an Ocean City, MD, but NJ is where we always go!

We started bringing our kids to Ocean City boardwalk when they were still babies.  It is a “dry” town, no bars or alcohol served anywhere on the island, which makes it very family friendly.  After we moved to KY, we would go each year in the summer, even if only for a few days, and stay at a B&B in Ocean City and just relax and get our “beach fix.”  There are plenty of rides for the kids and we would walk the boards for hours.  Many happy memories.  I love the smell of the salt air as you drive over the causeway – that will always be “home” to me!  When we lived in KY, people would ask me what did I miss about NJ, and the first time I was asked I really thought about it and my answer was (and still is) “the smell of the salt air driving over the causeway”, which of course they didn’t understand.  I also missed the sound of the seagulls and the sand between my toes.

So, I was, of course, a bit sad I didn’t get to see my Mom or my kids for Mother’s Day.  My Mom was on a train coming up from FL to visit (I’ll see her this Saturday), my daughter lives over 4 hours away, but she did send me Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and my son had to work.  Both kids called and I called my Mom, so I did at least talk to all of them and I know I will see them soon!  This is what happens when families grow up and leave the nest! Not seeing my kids regularly is one thing I will miss the most I’m sure!  To be honest, I don’t see them now regularly, but my hope is when we do see them in the future, it will be a planned time of actually being together and not just a quick hello.  One of the things Linda said at the rally really stuck with me, she said that when she spends time with her family now, even though it is not as often as it used to be, she feels more present and in that moment than she ever used to before and the quality of that time is so much better.  That is my hope for my time with my family in the future.  More quality time!

I can’t finish my post today without a special shout-out to one of my newest friends, Tracy.  She and I were “chatting” on FB and I guess she could tell I was feeling a bit down, so she called and gave me the best pep-talk.  I can’t ask for a better friend right now!  Thanks Tracy!  You are the BEST!