Getting Ready!

Well tomorrow we are celebrating with family and friends over at 40 M!  As of Monday we will be 99.5% done with the house and it will be move in ready for some lucky person.

This has been such a bittersweet process.  Just acquiring the house was difficult and has left a wedge between me and my brother.  It is so sad and I think about it often.  Just recently I learned that similar rifts have happened on my Dad's side of the family for years, generations really.  It is like history repeating itself.  I hope that some day the relationship I once had with my brother will begin again.  Only time will tell.

Over this past year we have literally rebuilt the home I grew up in piece by piece.  We tore it down and built it back up.  It feels almost like a metaphor for life.  Over time life tears you down or wears you down and when you think you can go no lower you pick yourself up by the bootstraps and begin again.   The completion of this house feels like a new beginning.  Our life has been on hold for the past year held hostage by the process that was 40 M.  It has been a difficult road with many bumps along the way.  I have shed many tears.  Tears of grief, relief, remorse, regret, remembrance and even tears of joy.  Such a complex time it has been.  There have been days; like part of today where the tears have just flowed.  There is a wistful longing for what once was but can be no more.  It's hard for me to wrap my mind around.  It just happens.  But enough about the crying.... there is much to do before tomorrow.

I plan on serving simple foods at this open house.  They all stem from family recipes.  S's Cinnamon Swirl Bread, Mum's Chicken Salad, Dad's Ham Salad, my artichoke feta dip and ranch dip with veggies.  Toll house cookies, so simple to make in a machine, once a labor of love will be mounded high on a plate.  Oatmeal cookies for my boy.  Tiny snack size candies in a big glass bowl that will remind the children of Papa.  See even in the food there are memories and now tears!  I hope I can hold it together tomorrow when my family and friends arrive.

Peace!