FMQ Friday – Packing, Packing, Packing

It’s Friday and time to link up! Unfortunately I’ve got to admit to not free motion quilting at all this week because I’ve been busy working with Josh, James, and Dad’s girlfriend Emily to help Dad pack his house and get ready to move.

This has been a continual process for more than 3 years after my mom left. The house was a wreck to start with (three grown kids, 2 grandkids, and more than 30 years of accumulation will do that), but it was doubled when my grandmother moved to Texas in 2011, her house (and Dad’s workshop) sold, and all his tools had to find new place to live.

Josh unscrewing the pot rack hanger while Emily cleans up

So this weekend was the push, shove, and kick to box up EVERYTHING. It’s hard work. It’s hard physically in the heat and humidity of NC, particularly this year when it the weather has decided to get go through a seasonal shift and rain like there’s no tomorrow at least once every single day of the week.

It’s also hard emotionally. This was the house I grew up in and is filled with echoes and memories. Some are good, but most I’d like to put out of my mind forever.

James stayed entertained with toys and a big box. Gotta love being 6!

But for me, the stuff holds memories too. Going through cabinets and boxing up trinkets, I realized just how much stuff my dad has held onto for 30+++ years. I found a blue vase that held cut flowers every summer. I found pottery dishes we’d used only for special occasions for more than 15 years.

It might sound angry and melodramatic, but there is a big piece of me that would love to smash these items on the brickwork outside. To see these plates and vases and stupid trinkets blown to dust would be an enormous relief.

Why? Because only then would I be guaranteed to never see them again and have to feel the old emotions from the baggage they represent.

Anyway, by the end of 2 days of hard work, I did see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’d boxed up the house and moved furniture, planned the staging of the house, and eaten two great meals together. There’s still a lot left to be done, but I feel like we’ve tackled the hardest part this weekend.