One thing that this COVID pandemic has made super-clear to us, is that living near family and life-long friends is no longer just a dream or luxury, it's a must.
We moved out to Illinois nine years ago with two baby girls and a goal to live within our means in a larger home with no commute and a big yard. And we succeeded. It's been a really great place to raise our kids and build a life, but we don't have any big personal connections here.
I made friends with the girls' friends' mothers, but those relationships have started to disappear as their friendships haven't survived adolescents.
Meanwhile, we have friends and family we see annually on the East coast that continue to be important to us. And in normal years we get to see them enough to satisfy our itch for close social ties. But this year, when travel has not been possible, we've really seen how our life is lacking without that connection.
It's something we even talked about in Paris. Why are we living so isolated?
Not to mention Dave's parents are getting older and need a little extra support we can't offer from where we are. And the older the girls get, the more we want to show them the US., and we're so isolated here geographically. We dream of weekend trips to NYC, DC, Phili, etc.
So, it's time to go back east.
We've started looking at areas and chatting with our friends and family there for more ideas. In a non-COVID world, we'd have gone out to house hunt, but things are on a very different timeline, so we'll all need to be patient.
Next step: get our house ready to sell. Clear out the junk and clutter. And go room by room making it clear and beautiful. Of course I'll be documenting it all right here, so stay tuned.
Here's to a VERY BUSY 2021 full of hope and big changes.
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