CLARITY (25 down)

 (Here we are sharing/counting UP Forty Days and Forty Nights of our lives, our last on the inner-west side of town and, eventually, some of our first on the other (far) side of town, where we envisage some big changes coming our way. Thanks for joining us as we remember, celebrate and experience gratitude for our time here, and sometimes feel completely overwhelmed and exhausted by the changes underway!)

A little run-down of our 40 day stats:

• Days to possession of  new house - ONE;
• Days remaining in this house - NINE;
• Days to sale of this house - ZERO!!!!

Yesiree, we SOLD and are relieved to have one big stage behind us. By referring to this 'stage' I don't mean this stage of our lives, in this Village because, that's been overwhelmingly postive. No, I'm referring to constantly having the house in a state of show-worthiness (that's my word). Though, of course, we had lulls in readiness, the challenge of consistenly having a house ready for viewing by prospective purchasers, particularly with two small children, is not one I seek to repeat any time soon. It's over! Now that I've let go of that complaint, which in the scheme of life is hardly a complaint at all but just an inconvenience, let me move on to share more of our tale.

Last Friday, while I was in the hospital with Rafael ever-so-closely monitoring his breathing and general well-being, Dino was at home with Elsa preparing the house for it's LAST (!) showing though, at that stage, we didn't know it was almost over. By Saturday morning, we were happily accepting an offer and on our way home from the hospital signing paperwork (in a real-estate 'drive-though' kind of way) that has us officially signing away our financial interest in this Village, not to mention or home! Changes of this scale bring about mixed emotions in me but, generally, I feel completely relieved and excited about the next steps, which are well underway.

And to celebrate, we took some time off house-admin. to share in tea (and babychinos) with friends here. The table in the back courtyard provides the perfect way to incorporate some train-spotting into our day. And the view is much better if you leave the mothers to chat and move closer to the station - apparently.

And then, time in the garden where we discovered this, the first shoot from the many trays of seeds we've planted over the past week. I felt determined to get a head start on our new vegetable patch. A big storm is blowing in, the sky is beautiful and the breeze is cool for the first time today. I think I'll go and partake in some storm-watching with the kids!