More of the Same and Blue Mountains

 

What can I say about this summer?  It’s been difficult?  Long? Exhausting? Hot? Not to mention depressing and confusing….

Our downsizing has continued.  Some days we do nothing, other days are full of accomplishments.  The basement is now  mostly organized.  All the boxes have been explored and categorized.  Unused items have found other homes….occasionally in the trash and we have moved on to phase two: painting the kitchen.

“The kitchen paneling and wall paper will look better painted” the realtor said and we both agreed.  The paneling is done and looks great!  Now dreading  painting the wall paper!

Before

After

The confusing and often frustrating part of this project is our ambivalent feelings about selling the house.  Most days it is a “go”, definitely the right thing to do.  But there are also many times it’s a “how in the world are we going to manage in that little duplex without a basement or garage?”  These thoughts mostly arrive in the middle of the night or in odd moments while sitting on the deck looking at the flowers.  And then there’s the cats.  How do we downsize them?

Speaking of the flowers…last year we were in Alaska during the daylily season.  This year I took many pictures as a way of keeping their memories while saying good-bye. 

We received encouragement from a blog post during one of our downtimes.  The Winnie Views post of “How to Eat an Elephant” arrived just at the perfect moment to help me to realize that the plan of updating the house for 3 months, selling the house in 4 months and heading out to AZ by December 1 was causing the stress.  So the plan is now thrown out the window.

The new plan is to keep painting, keep throwing out the stuff we don’t need and take a break from it all!  We headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway and our little bit of heaven at Mt Pisgah Campground.

It is now day 3 here at 5,000 feet and my body, mind and soul are being renewed.  We have done very little but walk and ride the campground and sit, inhaling the cool breezes and peace that flows through the mountains.

We hope the tranquility will last and stay with us once we return to the flat lands.