A lot can happen in just a few weeks. We sold a house. Then within a week we fell in love with a new one. And in 24 days we'll have new keys in a new town.
A few days after I excitedly wrote about accepting an offer on our house, Chris took the kids for a weekend camping trip. I had a quiet house to myself with big plans to start organizing for the upcoming move. I had been dealing with a lot of back pain and leg pain but was working through it to tackle my to-do list. Life threw me a curve ball on my first day home alone however, and I should have seen it coming.
My first project was to sort and pack up my huge collection of craft supplies. I decided to put everything on the half-open ping pong table so I could reach it easier. The irony is I did this to avoid worsening my back and leg pain. It didn't take long for the table to collapse onto itself, smashing into my right knee and landing on my foot. The next couple of days involved a lot of ice, pain pills and heating pads, but thankfully not a cast. I somehow escaped without any broken bones, but did end up with bruises the size of melons.
It's been a couple of weeks and the bruises are finally faded. I'm pushing myself to write and concentrate despite my reluctance, because the muscle and back spasms haven't faded like the bruises. Physical pain is maddening for so many reasons, but for me the biggest is how it affects my ability to get things done. It's tempting to stick with the distractions that I've learned can briefly take my mind away from pain...whether it's watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls or the Food Network, or playing a mindless game on the iPad.
What I need though is to literally get back on my feet - or find a way to make the boxes pack themselves... We've hired a moving company to do the heaving lifting. If only they also sold magic wands I'd be in great shape.
But I've started us on this fresh start and despite writing about it frequently enough the progress is forward. We've fallen in love with the lakeside town I knew well as a child, Port Colborne, and my father and brother still reside in. With the move there comes great changes - considerably less living costs, the closeness to the water and parks, and a lot of small town charm. I'm sure there will be lots of posts about this in the months to come, since I've been told I "gush" about our new hometown. To that I ask, how could I not gush?
