After 11 years we have finally moved home and after being in our new place for 35 days I finally have a moment to write about it. In short it has been odd. Living in a place for that long has left us with a feeling of surrealness we cannot shake now we’re somewhere else.
When we moved into our last home in 2010, my son was 5 years old and my daugher was 9. We are now moved out and they are 16 and 20 respectively. Nearly 11 years is a very long time, but it seems much longer when you measure it in the milestones that myself and especially my children have been through in that time.
Milestones that include both of my children being home educated, going through puberty, growing in height (Jacob is hooge), opening bank accounts, getting provisional driving licenses and national insurance numbers, campaiging politically, coming out, finding their own styles and developing their characters and generally growing up a lot. It’s been memorable!
Had it not been for my landlord wanting to sell the house to her son so they could retire early (we’ll leave the ethics of being a private landlord and serving notice while someone is shielding out of this blog right now as I cannot write favourably about it), then we would likely have still been there.
Snow days, band practice, fixing cars, going on hikes, developing my business and expanding my love for working in the third sector, starting a campaigning organisation, building robots, growing sunflowers, science experiments, decorating for Halloween, many new pairs of glasses, sadness and loss, Jacob finally finding his balance on his bicycle, going to sci-fi conventions, seeing the Red Arrows overhead and listening to the constant grumble of Royal Air Force jets not far away, being silly, flying kites/planes, drones and helicopters, getting sick and having to use a wheelchair almost constantly, family visits and having reuinions with long lost family, all of the home education and crafting that we could squeeze in and a lot more besides have been enjoyed at what was a very peaceful and safe feeling home.
Of course we are now somewhere new and although it is going to take us some time to adjust after such a monumental stay in one spot, we will undoubtedly adjust and while we will have many of the same adventures, some of them can never again happen in this new place. But that’s okay because there are now new adventures to be had, in new ways and in a new place as a solid family trio.
There’s decorating to be done, Christmas to have, Cerys has been madly saving to take some driving lessons as soon as it’s safe out there again, Jacob wants to start a gaming channel on YouTube (good for me as I get to sneak in loads of extra teaching like video editing, web design, graphic design, marketing), and I want to move on and carry on retraining and learning.
We just need a bit of positivi-tea and to look forward as well as back!
Emma!
