Too much going on

The end of the semester is coming near and I can hardly wait!  I've been peddling as fast as I can all semester, just trying to keep up.  I will never take on a brand new class again without having it fully prepped in advance.  Add to that stress taking a week off to go to Ohio for the birth of my niece, and then having to clean out nine years worth of stuff from the attic so our roof could be removed and replaced, and you'll understand what kind of chaos I've been living in.  Oh, and just for good measure add a broken washing machine and having to haul laundry for a week, then the dryer broke.  It never rains but it pours.

Here's a peek into our attic before.  Half the attic was filled with my daughter's stuff.  She hasn't lived at home for 7 years.  I really wanted to bump out the attic while we had the roof off, but the cost to do the roof, gutters and paint the outside of the house was double what we were expecting.  So no nice attic room for me.  I'll have to make the best of what it is without a bank of windows bringing in headspace and light.  I'm hoping to fix it up and use it for a sewing and craft room.

There's plenty of space for what I want to use it for, but I will probably spend the next year insulating and dry walling it myself.  Then I will have to figure out the air conditioning issue.  

My son's room is filled with stuff from the attic belonging to three of us.  Our sunroom is packed with my daughter's stuff.  So she and I spent one Saturday going through buckets of childhood things deciding what to keep, throw away, give to family members, or sell at a yard sale.  She gave away a huge storage box of Barbie dolls to the daughter of a friend of ours.

My daughter and I had some bonding time over treasured old items.  She told me she wanted to show me something.  She was hesitant because she didn't know what my reaction would be.  I told her she was an adult now and shouldn't worry what I would think.  Then she revealed her latest tattoo to me.  It runs from the top of her ribs down to her hip, and it's not done yet.  It will eventually be a tree of life made up of various animals.  It is a work of art.  The shading is gorgeous.  I don't think this picture does it justice.   Then she told me she wanted to give some of her baby stuff to her new cousin.  I said, "don't you want to keep these for your kids one day?"  Then she told me with great finality, "mom, I'm not going to have kids.  I don't want them.  I have my horses, they're my babies and will be with me for the next twenty years."  I know she's only 25, she could change her mind, but I don't think she will.  She's never liked kids, never liked babysitting, and always preferred animals to people.  I told her, "that's okay.  That's your choice.  Don't ever feel obligated to have children if you don't want them.  It's  very hard to raise children and you shouldn't do it if you're not totally committed to doing it."  Then a little sadness crept into my heart knowing I probably won't see any grandchildren from her.