Making Room.

I shared a very vague post a few months back about making room for new priorities. After more thought and many difficult conversations, including some hard goodbyes, today marked the end of what I now see as a months-long journey to be home on Thursdays.

It started back in May, when I moved my knitting class from Monday nights to Thursdays.

The change was good, like I shared in July:

Beginning last month, I moved my Monday evening class to Thursday evenings. Thankfully, all my students save one were able to make the change and most were just as happy about it as I am. It's nice to be home on Monday evenings - the golf course is closed on Mondays, so if Marc's in town, he's home; and I get to bed at a more reasonable hour, which makes Tuesdays with Charlie easier. So now my Thursdays are a little longer, but that seems to be working ok, since the next day is Friday and then the weekend!

But then I started thinking about how nice it might be if I were simply home. I could cook dinner (??!!) and  I could be the one to turn the porch light on. Once I thought about it for more than a second, it was an easy decision. It was harder to tell my students. But happily many of them have the flexibility to join me on Wednesday afternoons, so I might end up with one VERY full class in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week...and that's wonderful!

We had our last Thursday evening class last week. The girls were great - we drank wine and had snacks and talked about knitting and life ... which is what we always do (well, except for the wine). I thought to take another photo in the parking lot as I left. Marking another milestone.

Today's goodbye was, in a sense, harder.  Holly and I have co-hosted the weekly knitting group at the nursing home since 2011. There are now three of us (four, including Holly) co-hosting and the group of "knitters" mostly crochet. Also it's only three to four ladies most weeks, so it doesn't feel like I'm leaving a huge gap. When we (Holly is really the more popular :-) said good bye today the ladies gave us hugs and I promised we'd keep in touch.

It was really nice to get home today before it got dark. I didn't even need to turn on the porch light.

So now my Thursdays are "home days". just in time to welcome a new baby into the family! If all goes well, I'll be having Thursdays with him when Katie goes back to work next February.  Tuesdays with Charlie have been such a blessing I'm not sure how my heart can possibly hold that and another day with his brother. but of course it will. there's plenty of room!