March came in like a lion, but it is now lamblike. The season of Lent has arrived with sunny skies and mild temperatures. Meanwhile memories of a frigid February are fading, as signs of spring brighten each morning.
Taking a moment to reflect on Lent since I haven't written in a bit. This Lent has some privations out of my control - my husband is working 1000 miles away. Most of my kids are grown. Teaching takes up all my time - except the hour just wasted deleting junk email and sifting through old message attachments in order to avoid having to pay extra storage fees because we have maxed out the gigabites we get for free after 20 some years. This is the sort of activity I should give up for Lent, and to a certain extent, I have greatly limited my media use. I've been intending to accompany my sacrifice of media time with in increase in prayer, spiritual reading and acts of charity- I have plenty of need to grow in holiness in other ways.
For the meantime, I have resolved to follow Pope Francis's request and give up most social media (counting this as a journal, not social media). I am still checking in occasionally to see if my kids share anything, but I trying to sacrifice the doom scroll. I need to accompany this with giving up reading the Wall Street Journal cover to cover. . .
All these things! Cutting back on them all should free me for more time to read and to worship; instead all of my "extra" time has been spent looking at Zillow.
Yes, our move is a reality. Since I last wrote over 2 months ago, my husband has taken a new job up north, about 2 hours from our first grandbaby and 3 from my parents. We are doing the "Geo-bach" thing, as they call it in the Navy - he's in South Bend, and I'm finishing the school year in Texas. It's not ideal, but two months have flown by, so I assume the next 3 will fly. Our plan is to move north after the last day of school, our son's wedding, and our nephew's wedding. And maybe the 4th of July...
I am relishing every day here. The weather is beautiful. School is going well. Our friends are wonderful. I feel guilty that my husband is living in a tiny condo surrounded by college students who have a very different schedule than he does - and the walls are thin enough he can hear them.
We spent half of last week with him on a house hunting mission over spring break. We found some options, but I am feeling really hesitant to commit. Meanwhile, my husband would put an offer in on the first house he looked at if I let him. Right now we have 2 good options that we need to act on if we are going to make an offer. A third option has my favorite yard, but it is a mid-century home stuck in the mid-century (not yet modern...) and though it is on a nice street, it is hemmed in by busier streets. It's been on the market almost 3 months, so we are passing on that one.
The other two aren't on the market yet. They are both older homes and both need some work to make them work for our family. The first is a very, very cute Tudor that is updated with excellent taste, but it is only a 3 bedroom. We would want to renovate a dining room + laundry room into a first floor primary suite, add an apartment over the garage and connect the garage to the house with a greenhouse-like breezeway. I would also like to open up the kitchen into the next room which now is set up as a den but would make a better dining room because it is next to the kitchen.
This house would work for us, and it is nicely appointed and cute. Very Tudor living room, though, with exposed beams and a pitched roof, and a narrow staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms. A hidden tiny room off the primary BR could function as an extra sleeping space. The stairs are intimidating to me - if our parents came to live with us, these stairs would be treacherous. Same with the stairs to the finished basement. It is not a house for elderly right now.
Also, it is closer to downtown, which is seeing a revival right now, but has historically been pretty sketchy. This particular house is in a neighborhood that has been insulated from local crime, but it is closer to the cross street that signals the end of the less - crime ridden neighborhood.
The other house is close to campus where we had initially targeted living, although many of the houses are turning to Air BNBs, which is great when you need extra overflow, but may disrupt the feel of the neighborhood as a communicy. This house is expensive, but needs updates, mostly paint, but also windows, another bathroom, and the basement redone. Add a kitchen gut to make it work for our lifestyle.
So what to do???
Wait to see if something better comes up? South Bend isn't actually a haven of cute houses. Is it worthwhile to wait and hope something at least more in line with our preferences, or is a ? I said last time that I wasn't going to get in a pressure situation, but here we are. It's basically neighborhood vs. renovation.
