Townies

I'm aware that no one reads my blog regularly - maybe one or two friends check in occasionally - and it means that I can easily step away and forget about it while I get on with life. So I do apologise if I have any ghost followers out there who were hanging out for an update, haha.

In these past few months, while the world has been in turmoil with COVID, we experienced a number of changes. Yes, my menopause journey, as per my previous blog post. But also, our two older children managed to find jobs that they both love. After quite a long period out of work for them both, I am proud of the work ethic they have and the confidence they've gained. They have really impressed me with their attitudes and how grown up they've become, after all the dramas of those turbulent teenage years.

Our youngest, meanwhile, is really coming into his own as a teenager - the moodiness has definitely arrived, although the sweetness of my "not so little" boy (he's nearly 6 feet tall now) still shows through at times. He was more pleased than we expected to get back to normal school when it opened up again and his report card for last term was definitely an improvement on previous ones. Of course, now he's just excited to be on Christmas holidays.

The biggest news for us - as shown by the picture above - is that we have moved house. We were in the old house for nearly 7 years and, while we loved living there, as renters we are at the mercy of the landlords. They needed to get the place ready to sell, so we had to go. It's not as nasty as that might sound - they were great to us but we knew for a while that this was on the cards. The rental market is terrible just now, so it's a scary time to be looking for another house. There are very few houses available and the ones that are usually get dozens of applications from potential tenants. We were very concerned about how we might go finding another place.

Luckily, we were offered a house by a friend. So we have left our 'semi rural' house to move back into town, closer to everything. We miss having all that country space around us (and that view!) but we're also enjoying the convenience that comes with being 'townies' again; easier access to shops, school and other facilities. The house backs onto a park, so that gives us a little more breathing room, and the home has a lovely feel to it. The owners are doing some renovations around us (painting, new bathroom, etc), so settling in has been a slow process, but the house is coming along nicely and we love living here so far.

Our plans to move completely away from the area are currently on hold, but that comes down to other factors too - the Caveman being off work at the moment with a back problem, the kids all wanting to stay here for now, a lack of funds available for moving further away to a more expensive area. It's not off the table for the future, but this is where we'll stay for the time being. We are honestly just grateful to have somewhere to live and incredibly thankful that things have fallen into place up to this point.

So that's our crazy family update. There always seems to be something going on with us ... but we manage to find a way through and our first priority is always each other x