What a week!

It's been quite a WEEK! 

First off, spring was on full display.  Weather was in the 50's & 60's and I was in my weather-heaven.

Tuesday oldest son turned 32 and Wednesday we celebrated with him and his youngest brother (they share an apartment) with take-out Bronzini Pizza and garlic knots.  Yummy stuff!  And a few rounds of the game, Medium.  How do I have no photos of any of this?

After driving a couple thousand miles over three days, artist sister also arrived in the area on Wednesday.  

Sister is in front, I'm in back.

On Thursday my brother's house went from:

to:

We arrived in town a few minutes prior to the scheduled closing and walked around the property one last time.  Before we left, the listing agent stopped by and changed the sign to read SOLD.  That was handy!

At the closing we met the buyer of my brother's house.  He's a young man (mid-thirties) with a vision for updating older houses in lower income neighborhoods.  It was interesting to hear his plans for the little bungalow my brother had lived in for over 30 years. 

Afterwards, sister and hubs & I had lunch and then sister and I drove around our hometown (and sometimes walked) for a while looking for houses that were familiar (of friends and family from our childhood).  Driving through a neighborhood that once housed our Jr. High School, we were delighted to see an old soda fountain/diner from our youth still intact.  Well, not the soda fountain, but the building.  While it looked just like it did in the 60's and 70's,  It had most recently been used as an election headquarters (for either Greg Pence, or Trump and Mike Pence).  We had to stop for pictures when we spotted a cardboard Trump in the window:

We laughed so hard, I imagine the neighbors thought we were nuts.  

But it sure was fun just being silly.

Later in the evening, we came back to our house where we looked through some of our brother's things.  Some items my sister would take back with her, some items were in the category of memorabilia and personal notes created by, or relating to our brother.  It was good to have company sifting through the later things.

~~~~~

Friday I realized I had forgotten to hand over the keys to my brother's house at the closing, so that meant another trip to Columbus to hand deliver them to the buyer.  My sister joined me and we became determined to find a building where our aunt used to have a Bible bookstore in the 60's.  We think we found it.  Her shop may have possibly been in the same space (or in the next store down from) where there is now a sweet little yarn shop:

We approached the store just as the owner was getting ready to lock up, but when we explained what we were looking for, she invited us in to see if it looked familiar.  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the inside, but then again, I didn't want to presume to hang around too long.  This will be a fun place to revisit soon, though.

 ~~~~~

Saturday, we met a niece and her sweet family to pass along some items of my brother's.  We had lunch at Zaharako's, an over-100-year-old ice cream shop/soda fountain in downtown Columbus.  It was old when I was a kid in the 60's.  Now it's something of a relic.

Flowers on table are from oldest sister (sent by way of her daughter, the niece we were meeting that day.)

Saturday evening, my sister and I met with a wonderful couple who knew our brother through the local amateur radio club.  Words cannot do justice to what a gift it was to hear the couple recount memories and thoughts regarding our brother and share the experiences they had had with him over the years.

~~~~~

Sunday was my 62nd birthday.  It was the first time in months we'd attended church just as congregants.  We've been back a few times (even the week before) to serve on sound and computer duty, but it was our first experience since COVID that we sat with other attendees and just soaked in the worship service unencumbered by duties.  I didn't even wear a mask.  Yes, there is life after COVID vaccines!

Monday I took a walk through one of my favorite places: the local cemetery:

Tuesday (yesterday), my sister, and hubs & I spent hours looking at slides from our childhood.  It was bittersweet, but good.  We spent some time culling out pictures we didn't want, and made plans to digitize the keepers.

And this (Wednesday) morning, we woke up to this:

I know the snow won't stay for more than today, but it's very sad to imagine that under the snow, all the beautiful blooming trees probably turned brown overnight.  I'm so glad it was a beautiful drive for my sister as she made her way here last week, and that we took advantage of lovely days to do some walking and taking in the beauty and scent of blooming trees.  

Wednesday (today) my sister began her trek back home.  I pray it will not be hard for her.  Mixed in the good and fun of our time spent together were also hard things.  It's strange how sometimes the hard moments felt like a burden shared, and sometimes it felt like a burden doubled. I'm curious, but I didn't want to ask her if she feels the same. I'm glad we had this time together. I don't want to tinge it with such a negative thought. It's time for us both to do some processing alone again, I suspect.  And it's good (and necessary) for life to get back to some normalcy, but it was hard to see her go.    

While there are still months ahead of probate, I think with the selling of my brother's house, the estate business will all become something that will more easily flow with our days, than our days being directed by things needing attending to. 

I hope to finally start getting back to my "Making Space" challenge I started last year.  And after the snow melts I look forward to enjoying the rest of a beautiful spring here.  

I do hope it's beautiful where you are!  Thank you for stopping by and and letting me share my past week with you.  

This pic is just for a giggle.  

Chick-fil-A really has got good service figured out - even in the rain.

Life is good...

At 70-something degrees this afternoon, I decided to open the front windows to get the fresh comfortable air flowing indoors from the shaded side of the house.

About thirty minutes later, I started hearing loud noises out front.  

Really loud noises.

The street pavers have shown up on what is, so far, the most beautiful week of the summer to repave our road.  They had done the other side of the street a few weeks ago, so we knew our turn was coming.

I must admit...  my first inclination was to be annoyed.  Really!?!  The first day in months we can throw open the windows and we get all this noise and stinky smell of asphalt filling the house?!?

And then I decided to be thankful for such a first-world problem.  

And my camera.  

And the sense to take some pictures.

And then I was super tickled to see two little boys a couple of houses down, waving and pointing, who quite possibly are experiencing a real highlight of their week.  Big noisy trucks working right in front of their house for at least a couple of days - as late as the pavers got started today and by the time this work is finished.   The boys waved to the drivers; the drivers tooted their muffled horns.  😊 

My heart is taken back in time to my own three little barefoot boys - who delighted in big noisy trucks.  

Life is good.

A bit stinky for a few days...

But good.

Summer's end...

I know it's been autumn for three weeks already, but it's felt like summer.  Until recently.

With the wonderfully chilly nights we've had lately, and knowing autumn's first frost is around the corner, it was exciting to still find one of late summer's delights.  As I watered my mums recently, I noticed movement amongst the blooms.  I looked closely, and then suddenly saw a little (well, actually a fairly big) grasshopper moving along the tops of the flowers.

Evidently, neither the shower nor my excitement bothered him as he stayed pretty much in the same spot until I could get my camera from inside the house.   He patiently (or maybe warily) posed as I snapped away.  Finally sensing, I suppose, that I was no threat, he slowly crawled on to new blooms until he eventually disappeared again.   I hope he found the water as refreshing as I found the droplets delightful resting on his back and head.

The older I get, the more I notice how amplified everything is in the early weeks of fall.  The warmth of the sun seems to caress my skin instead of burning it.  The insects have become large and beautiful.  The sense of changing weather hangs heavy in the air...  Even the sky is bluer. 

I find late summer/early fall a season of anticipation.  The anticipation of the last cutting of flowers, ...putting the garden to sleep,  ...the deep chill that's coming, ...the blazing colors getting ready to burst upon us, ...and the end of the cicadas' songs.

This autumn, in particular, I am mindful of the season of life I'm in.  Age-wise, I'm definitely in my autumn season.  My chicks are fast flying the coop and I am once again getting my bearings on what a new stage of life means.  My bearings have calibrated slowly, but I've recently become free in spirit that I don't have to have all the answers.  Now it seems enough to feel like I'm finally asking the right questions.

When looked at in light of what God may have in store for me, this stage of life holds an optimism of perhaps a bursting forth with new vigor - if not physically, certainly spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. 

This autumn, perhaps more than in the past, I eagerly anticipate all things colorful and exciting.  Yet I daren't wish a moment of today away.  I don't wish away the fading flowers... the lingering, lazy bees and wasps...  the spiders' webs...  In the past I couldn't wait to be done with these things, and have it all cleaned up already.  This year I'm noticing them differently.  Savoring them.

The anticipation of the full blaze of autumn, every bit as much as the blaze itself, is a lovely too-short time.