A Fresh New Start

Happy New Year 2014 everyone!!  I really had intended to write a New Year's post yesterday, but simply could not find the time.  I may have mentioned in a few of my recent posts or e-mails that my husband took an extended vacation from work over the holidays.  He works on many IT projects (usually concurrently) at his job, and 2013 was a tough year.  They were so busy, he was barely able to take any time off during the year because of urgent project deadlines.

The end of the year rolled around, and he had several weeks of vacation benefits that he couldn't carry over, and they would be lost.  In addition, he was very stressed and starting to feel burned out.  So he took his vacation in one big block from Thanksgiving week through January 1st.  It was good for him to get a break from the stress and we were able to get a lot done here on our big cleaning out and re-organizing project in the house.  Several trips were made to the local Goodwill store to donate items, our 60-gallon trash can for curbside pickup was completely full several weeks in a row, and we donated many books and magazines to our local library.

It feels so good to have all that stuff out of here!!!  And we're not completely finished yet.  Mr. Forest Manor is back at work today, and I'm continuing to work on things around here.  The other big event for us was that we moved our son back to Greensboro this past weekend.  You may recall he graduated last spring, and we helped him move back home (much to his chagrin).  He was not about living with mom and dad again.  I think that really motivated him to look hard for a job, and in August he found one.

After working and saving his money for almost five months, he moved back to Greensboro.  He's working there and renting a house with two friends.  It is the cutest house, by the way!!  It's an older house in a good neighborhood with lots of big windows, hardwood floors, and a fireplace with built-ins on either side.  It reminds me so much of the house we lived in when Will was born.

Our Home 1989-1995

Of course I would love to help decorate it, but that is simply not done -- with daughters maybe, but not with sons.  :)  I mentioned it to him, in a half-joking manner, and the look he gave me ended further discussion on the topic.  I knew that would be his response, but sometimes I just have to tease him.  :)

Once we had his stuff moved to his new abode, our abode felt so much roomier!!  We donated some of our older furniture from the basement room to him, in addition to his computer desk, TV stand, etc.  He actually brought a lot of stuff home with him last spring.  My husband said yesterday it's a wonder the walls of our house didn't explode with all that stuff in here.  Clutter is actually very stressful, don't you agree?  We genuinely hope this new venture works out for our son's sake, as well as ours.  In this tough economy, it's hard to count on anything.

Sorry for the length of this post; it was longer than I intended.  May I just say that I hope 2014 will bring lots of good things to each and every one of you!  Thank you so much for your readership and all your support and friendship in 2013 -- I appreciate it so much!!

Denise