Happy Nu(clear) Year!

Chubby the white lab rat has been dismantled and Tickles Tabitha's Christmas costume packed away. It felt a little sad to wave goodbye to the tail end of Chubby, and the year 2015.

A lot can happen in a year.

This is a photo I posted last year, I was sitting on this same sofa, looking out these windows, realizing how lucky I was to have such a beautiful view. I was home alone, in a new house, in my new home state... simultaneously pensive and restless.

Some of the new neighbors I had met had been talking about their young (in some cases not so young) adult children who had moved back home for one reason or another. Even though they definitely were not bragging about it I felt the slightest twinge of envy.  

My children had been on their own and loving it for a couple of years by then. I would have predicted Hell to freeze over before predicting that either one of them would move back in with me.  

Yes, having to do this might be one of the reasons living here got called Purgatory. 

Hell didn't happen- but Purgatory sure did! First my son Jordan, and then my daughter Tabitha asked to move in with us here in Tennessee, or as Tabitha labeled it to Purgatory, while they navigate the next course of their own lives.  

Life is like that- just when you think you’re headed one direction someone hits the brakes and you’re taking a detour.

I’m happy that now Frahmhaus will also have been home to my children as well and not just their parent’s house.

  

My children are not the freeloading Millennials you see stupefied on an episode of Dr. Phil. They’re smart, independent, and definitely more worried that living in their parent’s basement will go from temporary to forever than I am. 

Tabitha and Jordan

Now I have someone handy to do those embarrassing side gigs for Nutcracker Publishing, and to give me all sorts of ideas and material to vent write about. 

I can't wait to share one of the many humorous and heart-warming stories my son likes to provide, to any future grandchildren he has.

FYI: The possibility of my demise before grandchildren is why I have a bookcase full of journals!

Wishing all of you a Happy Nu(clear) Year!  Clear of stress and without mental meltdowns!

Here is to 2016 and all its possibilities!