Last week Mom came up to Urbana to help us start packing and decluttering. The week before that, my brother and sister-in-law helped us make some repairs in our main bathroom. (That was after my SIL ran 13.1 miles. She is unstoppable.) We don’t have a move date yet, but we don’t want to feel pressured when the time comes either. We are hopeful to get it done sometime this year.

Mom and I started with the room that seemed the most overwhelming to me: the office slash studio slash just-put-it-there-for-now-and-we’ll-deal-with-it-later room.

This means we packed away the majority of my art supplies. It was the right decision to make. Because, yes, I always feel like I should be drawing or coloring or painting or recording or editing a new video, but, no, I should not be prioritizing any of those things right now. It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything new to my channel, but it’s just going to have to be a little bit longer.

Having things (at least in this room) packed away neatly reminds me that I am doing exactly what I should be doing in this moment: preparing for a life change. There will be time to do more art when the move is done.

Here’s what the office looks like now. Mom brought her shredder for me to borrow so I can sort through the papers that have accumulated since we moved here in 2015.

Everything else is stacked in the closet and the boxes are labeled. Having just this much done makes me think what we are about to do is actually possible. Before, when all I could do was think about how impossible everything felt, all I did was worry. And, frankly, without help it would be impossible. I’m so grateful for everyone who has chipped in since my brain tumor diagnosis in 2017! This is just the latest in a long line of things I have to be thankful for.

Mom also helped us get the Wedgewood that belonged to Dan’s mom safely packed away for moving, and she made the first (of likely many) donations to Salt & Light, our neighborhood grocery and thrift store. We even got a small desk out to the curb that was picked up by someone too. Now the office can just be the place where all the packed stuff goes until IT’S TIME.

At mom’s, the basement remodel is moving ahead. Ryan’s plans are amazing and they’ve already chalked in lines where the rooms will be. Because costs are pretty high, and no construction project is complete without a few unanticipated challenges, I will be setting up a GoFundMe shortly for this project, separate from my medical fundraiser. As always, no one is pressured to give anything, but just be prepared for me to promote it. I’ll share more about it later once I have time to get everything set up.

Anyway, that’s where things are at the moment. Happy Monday.