I have another blog, one that's filled with photos and stories of my everyday life. It's a happy little blog that a (very) few of my family and friends read. However, it's not a down and dirty "this is my real life" kind of blog.
This will be the place that I tell the other story - of what's in my heart and head, the REAL life that I live. You won't hear all about the fun surface things that happen in my life. I'm going to try to be gut-level and honest, telling the irritating, frustrating and sometimes serious stuff that goes on in my world. It's the world of a working 50-something mother, wife, sister and daughter.
Are you ready for that? I don't know if I am. I think I am, but it feels more than a little scary. I can hardly imagine posting without photos ... without telling a happy little story .... but here we go.
Perfect example of how my life rolls these days. My grown (but not grown up) son (aged 24) has recently moved back home. He and his wife of 3.5 years have decided to separate / divorce. Not sure what all the reasons are (he doesn't share much) - but I do believe that it's really over this time. So we set him up in our partially finished basement - bought a double bed so he'd have a place to sleep, and he has a small bathroom to call his own. He basically brought all his worldly possessions (or at least the ones that she would let him take): clothes and his computer. And one cat. (Great. That was not supposed to be part of the plan.)
Son drives an older car that is pretty much a trash can on wheels, that constantly has mechanical issues. He calls us at 11:30 last night (after we'd been asleep for about an hour) and tells us his car has died and he can't get his hood unlatched. He thinks his battery is dead. I get the privilege of waking up a sleeping husband (never a good thing) to tell him the news. Fortunately he rises to the occasion, we get dressed and head out the door into the dark snowy night to find the son and his beater car.
To summarize - we found him, husband (who is a freaking mechanical genius, and knows all about cars, thank God!) got the hood unlatched and car jumped, and we were all back home safe and sound in short order. Thank you Jesus for that.
Today, son is fetching car parts and trying to work on his car before he has to go to work at 1:00. (Yes, son is employed, 40 hours a week, for which I am immensely thankful.) Not sure how well he'll do, but at least he's trying. Husband will probably have to finish the job. Fingers crossed that the beater mobile is up and running again by tomorrow.
The point of this tale - I - we - are so NOT happy that son is back in the household with all the stress and drama it brings (like this car thing). We know it's the right thing to do, to give him a safe place to land for a few months while he re-groups .... but it's still a stressor, every day. Son tries to stay out of our way, and is obeying all the household rules, but we were enjoying our "empty nest" so much this past year since Bird moved out (daughter, aged 20). We cherish our peace and quiet, and love that our home is finally a little less chaotic with both kdis moved out ... then this happens. We're dealing with it, but look forward to the day when Son gets back out on his own. It needs to be sooner rather than later. I love him dearly but he needs to fly the nest and get established in his own place.
That's it for now. More tales from the trenches of motherhood later.
