Movin' On Up

Life never stays the same. That's a good thing. Evolving, growing, maturing-choices, changes, challenges. Sometimes we're pulled kicking and screaming, sometimes we joyously jump head first. And of course there are those times we would rather hide under the bed than accept what is coming, what is inevitable.

Isn't there a bumper sticker that says something like, Life Happens.

Those of us who have been a while know that. It's all in our own acceptance and attitude that make what life deals us, our life as we know it.

Life as I know it is definitely changing as we speak. After 29 years, my husband and I agreed that mid-life would find us in the family home we built and raised our family in. Down-sizing was not an option with 4 children and hopefully many grandchildren some day. We agreed the home they grew up in was the home we wanted them to return to with their own families. The tree houses, the tadpoles, the 4-wheeler trails, the horse pasture (oh no, please no), the playhouse and the rope swings will all be here for the next generation of Wagners.

But...if we were staying, there was a little updating to do. A wall out here and there, a downstairs bedroom for aging knees, a better flow, a better plan.

Little updating. Is there such a thing? They are down to the studs. There is nothing left of my downstairs. It is piled in a dumpster, forsaken and discarded. I can't look as I walk by.

I love my house. I take offense at my children's comments about my counter tops. I take umbrage with my oven, baker of hundreds of birthday cakes, piled in a trash bin. My heart breaks to see the dismantled light fixture I saved grocery money to buy so many years ago. Simpich angels were hung from it's lovely brass arms every Christmas. A Cloud Baby added every time a new Wagner came. It was time but I can't help but be sentimental about the loss of what is familiar and comfortable.

My oldest son bought his first house last weekend. His sister is moving into his rental house. My youngest is moving out of his fraternity house and into a typical Norman rental-worn down but close to campus, and we are remodeling here. All will be moving on in May. It will be a little chaotic, but we'll manage because as I keep reminding myself, this is all good. This is all positive. And this is all family. - chrissie