Cathouse Teri’s last blog post..Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

I tend to schedule things to go out between 4-7am EST.

When my son’s mother purchased another house and moved out, she took EVERYTHING. My son and I came home to a 6000 sq ft home almost as empty as when I first purchased it. She even took family heirlooms that had been in my family for over 200 years. But aside from the material objects, what was most disappointing was that she did this despite the fact that our son would be living in this house.

I’ve refurnished the essentials but most of the house still sits empty and it definitely feels like something is “temporary”. The upside is that my son can ride his tricycle around the house without running into things and he probably has the largest setup of Geotrax in the state (for those not familiar with Geotrax, it’s a modular train set that can eat up floor space as quickly as divorce attorneys can eat up a life saving)! :)

He asked me one night why mommy took everything. I hesitated a little and just replied “because she needed it for her new house”. He smiled and said “that’s ok, we have each other”.

In comments related to this post, love your living room. I hate the idea of living in a temporary place, but I am used to it after having moved nearly 20 times, in my less than quarter-century life. Imagine trying to take your whole life to Europe! I love moving and packing, and can pack my whole place in a day. I unpack as soon as possible – I need things that are comforting – pictures, letters, make it seem like home. So even if it is temporary, it doesn’t feel like it!

I have these temporary ‘foreign’ items in my temporary apartment, that I’m only keeping temporarily until I move again (too many times in just over 2 years).

In my case, when I split with my husband, I got all the old furniture. All the beat-up, bought-in-Toronto, scratched-up-by-the-cats, full-of-memories, comfortable old furniture that no one would claim, nor did I want to get rid of (a security thing, maybe?). Then, I inherited all my dad’s ‘things’ one year later. And.. moved again. I had to chuck so much. And none of what’s left is really mine. Not my style, not my choice, just temporary things surrounding me (with the exception of this fabulous bed I bought last year!).

I’ve been thinking how nice it will be to really move on, and move in. Get rid of the old, and create my own space; well, with room for my teen. To be honest, I haven’t a clue what style is “me”: after 25 years of motherhood, marriage, and compromise, I’m still figuring what I like. In so many ways. About so many things.

A decorator, eh? What a brilliant idea! Did you say she comes with Sangria? :)

Way to move forward. Way to go red!