A Summer To Remember

Okay so admittedly I've been a bit off the grid. So sorry for those of you who have been faithfully following along with my blog. I had every great intention to continue with my posts over the summer but......well, it didn't happen did it?! Let me see if I can explain why.

First off, I was not prepared for the initial overwhelm and anxiety of being back in the Bay Area. Feeling like a fish out of water. The price of things, especially food, feels more than I remembered. The rushing around, the incredibly long stretches of time in the car. Why is everything so far away?! I had forgotten all these things. It's actually kind of comical that an appointment with our insurance agent is 40 minutes away!! Really?! If we drove 40 minutes in France we'd be up at a ski resort. Marc pointed out the ridiculousness of this and how absurd it would be to drive up to the ski resort to see our insurance agent.

But in some far away place in my memory this is totally normal and actually, the really scary part, is that after only 2 months back in California it was starting to feel "normal" again. I could literally see myself getting sucked back in to the hustle and bustle and actually, strangely, enjoying it! I realized something about myself, a bit of an epiphany perhaps. My "Type A", hyper-productive, personality thrives off of the busy, always bordering on the edge of chaos, lifestyle. But the other half to this epiphany, and the really important part, is that I could also see how totally unhealthy it is for me. How I would be right back on the path to burn-out. It was actually quite an "ah-ha" for me and I feel even more grateful that we decided to choose another path, a path that will hopefully be more balanced and less crazy in France.

There was of course the gargantuan task of preparing our house to sell and going through everything that we own. Of course this played into my anxiety and overwhelm. Marc worked tirelessly on the house for over 6 weeks; replacing siding, rebuilding stairs, replacing decking, and simply cleaning the entire property. He lost 10 lbs just from the sheer increase of physical activity.

After our renter moved out of the main house, we had 2 days to clean and paint the entire inside of the house, before the photographer was scheduled to arrive to take photos of the house for the listing. I stayed up until 2am the night before cleaning and prepping each room, while Marc followed with paint and brush. I set my alarm at 7am to make sure we got up with plenty of time to finish before the photographer arrived at noon. Marc was not in bed. Sure enough I found him in the house finishing painting the kitchen. He literally painted the entire night!! It was such a physical and emotional push to finish everything on time but the house was nothing short of beautiful by the end.

Yes!! That really is a mama and baby deer sleeping outside our window. Oh how I love the forest!

It was a complete emotional roller-coaster to say good-bye to our house of over 12 years. It's our first home, it's where both of our daughters were born (literally, in our bedroom), and where our dog is buried. It's part of a community of friends and neighbors that I just can't imagine being so lucky to have again. And the redwoods.....they speak for themselves. To say we're not sad about this would not be honest. At one tearful point of saying good-bye to the house, my oldest daughter, Lola, in an effort to comfort me pointed out that I was the one who decided to leave and that I should be excited. It's not easy holding totally different emotions at the same time and I proceeded to explain to her that I could feel sad about one thing while also feeling excited about something else.

Thankfully these moments of overwhelm and emotional ups and downs were cushioned by time with friends and family. And oh how truly lovely that was. The girls bounced from play date to sleep-over to play date and basically lived a dream summer with all their buddies. I am so utterly thankful for our amazing friends that essentially took care of our kids so we could take care of the house. You know who you are and THANK YOU again!!!

 

The other immense undertaking was whittling down all of our belongings to what would fit into 5 suitcases and a 7x7x4 crate! The only word I can find to describe this project was EXHAUSTING! There were many moments when I truly didn't thing we would get it done in time. Thankfully we did get it done but it came at a cost. The final push left me in bed with a migraine and unfortunately caused me to miss a final dinner with some friends.

In case you've never had to do this before, let me share how it went down. First, there's the obvious "I LOVE this and I absolutely must find a way to fit it on the crate" and the "I'm over this, let's get rid of it" (read.....yard sale, consignment store, & donations). This took some time but wasn't too emotionally draining. The next layer of course is harder. This is the layer where you have to decide about whether to make room for something that you like, you don't really want to get rid of it, but you're not sure it's going to fit. Once those two steps we're done, then came the actual packing everything up into boxes and trying to keep it to the dimensions of the crate. We taped out a section on our patio and attempted to arrange boxes to get an idea of how much we could actually fit. Next, every single box has to be labeled and followed with an electronic master list that you provide to the shipping company. This is super important in getting your stuff through customs once it arrives in Europe. The final step (the oh-so-super-fun step that left me with a migraine) included the final emptying of the house and shed, the final packing, loading up the U-Haul, and driving an hour and a half (south of San Francisco) to the freight company to pack up the crate. When we arrived they brought the crate out to us. We had to put it together, then got to work packing it.....much like a tetris game actually.

The base layer done.

Middle layer. This definitely took a few attempts at re-arranging to make it work.

The final loot; minus a few items we shoved up on top before closing the doors.

There it is; packed, fastened, taped, and labeled. Waiting for the forklift to take it back inside and get it ready to load on a truck. 

Thankfully Marc has a talent of being a master packer. We actually made it all fit, an hour and a half later. We nervously left our crate and all of our most precious belongings in this crate with the freight company and drove the U-Haul back to Marin. The plan for the crate is that it will be trucked to South Carolina where it will then be put in a shipping container with a bunch of other crates and put aboard a cargo ship. It will take about 2 1/2 weeks for the ship to cross the Atlantic where it will dock in the Netherlands. There it will clear customs and be put on a truck to France. All of this could take anywhere from 2-3 months. So.....fingers crossed we see it (and all our stuff) again.

After all this was done, we were able to pack up our suitcases with what was left, clean up the house, officially say good-bye to our home, and head back to France.

Some final pictures and a swing in the hammock before driving away.

Oh yeah, and between all the above, Marc and I actually worked quite a bit.  So not to make any excuses or anything for having neglected "A French Remedy" but.....it was quite a whirlwind of a summer. And now......now, we're back in France. Unpacking and settling in to our new life here. Getting the girls ready to start another year of French school and all that this year has in store for us. Much more to come so stay tuned and ride along on this journey with us.