beginnings and endings

For those of you on the East Coast, this is a time of transition and schedules changing as school starts and vacation mode officially comes to an end. We are experiencing the shift in a lot of ways, as August was really low key, while September has begun full throttle. Kids are back in school, youth stuff is kicking off, and we are traveling to see family for weddings and other such occasions which we can't skip out on. This past weekend we were with Hillary's family which was good, but tiring. There was a wedding, and gatherings with family and friends, but we spent the majority of the time cleaning out Hillary's dad's house. Since Hillary's mom passed away we've been working through her stuff, trying to declutter and organize the place. With Hillary's dad getting remarried there is now a more urgent push to finish this work and how we spent our weekend is a picture of life right now: celebrating the new, cleaning out and categorizing the old, being on the move from one place to another, and trying to care for the family in the midst of it. Tomorrow night we head down to my parents for a few days and I'm looking forward to it, but trying to figure out what needs to happen between now and then is a little daunting.