Dreaming of France -- Fear and Jubilation

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Is it possible to be over-the-moon excited about something and petrified at the same time?
That's how I'm feeling these days.
Our plans to sell the house and move to France are progressing. Downstairs right now, some men are updating the bathroom and installing a new floor in the main room.
We are slowly getting rid of furniture, a bookshelf here, a spare refrigerator there, trips to Goodwill each week with books and clothes and kids' items that we no longer need. School papers, pictures, and books that we can't bear to part with are tucked into plastic bins. We'll probably go through them again and again, slowly releasing items that we can't possibly move overseas.
The purging of belongings feels marvelous, freeing.
The living room is painted and free of clutter. I could definitely feel secure showing the living room to potential buyers, but there's much more work to do.
So where's the fear?
Every time I think about that day when we climb onto the plane leaving our three children behind, my heart clutches. Can I really do that? Say goodbye knowing that I won't see them for six months, a year?
Of course, when they went to college, Grace in New York, Spencer in Florida, I survived without seeing them for three months. We managed to stay in contact.
Maybe it would be easier if they had moved away. Then the twinge of guilt wouldn't eat at me.
I guess I'm always the one who has left. After grad school, I packed up and moved to Florida, 1200 miles from my parents. We didn't have cell phones so once-a-week phone calls and letters had to fill the daily gap of contact.
My two oldest children encourage us to go. My youngest, 21 now, has accused us of abandoning him, but that has been a few months so his feelings may have changed. He has his own apartment, but I guess the idea that we wouldn't be here as a safety net seems scary to him. To me, too.
I am sad to sell this house and leave our community. It's like a 1950s enclave, except liberal. It has an incredibly low crime rate and excellent schools. We walk to the library and an array of coffee shops and restaurants. An Irish bar blares out music on St. Patrick's Day and the latest California-style bar celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Pretty much everything we need is within walking distance, including Earl's job, 3 miles away and my job, 4 miles away. We can bike into downtown Columbus, or walk when we have an extra hour.
But I've dreamed of living in France.

We've visited over and over again. In May, I'll take my 12th trip to France.
And Earl's dreams are filled with retirement plans. He has worked as a reporter for 40 years. It's a grueling business that eats up his days -- sometimes 12-hour days, and causes his eyes to pop open in the middle of the night, worried about making a mistake in a story.
He allowed me to stay home with the kids and I only worked part-time jobs while he carried the brunt of the financial burden. I owe him this. I need to support him in his retirement and carry the financial load for a bit.
Once he retires, we couldn't afford to stay here in this house, plus to pay for insurance and student loans and other expenses. So a move is in our future.
Setting off on an adventure is challenging. In every Disney movie, the main character dreams of what could be out there and something propels her.
I guess it's time to be my own Disney hero, no matter my fears.

Dreaming of France -- Prepping for A France Move

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Today, the sky is the clearest blue, like an imagined dream that filled the sky.
As Earl and I rode our bikes to the coffee shop, I looked up and saw the white silhouette of an airplane stark against the sky.
We both thought the same thing: We should be on that plane on our way to France.
Maybe soon.
The newspaper will be laying off people in the next 60 days. We hope Earl isn't on that list, but if he is, we'll move in December since I have a full load of classes this fall.
If he keeps his job, we'll wait until next August when Spencer finishes college and is hopefully employed.
We'll feel so much better if our children have jobs and apartments.
One thing that we have accomplished, in addition to cleaning up my desk, is to make sure all of the kids have reliable cars.
Our family of five has survived with two cars. As each child got their driver's license, we resisted buying an extra car. And it worked out as Grace headed off to college in Upstate New York, and then Spencer went to school in Florida. The kid left at home got to drive the second car, and most of the time Earl takes the bus to work.
When I have morning classes, I drop Earl at work since we both go downtown Columbus. Many times I suggest that Earl should take the car to work, but he doesn't want to pay for parking.
As Tucker moved home, and Grace moved back in after college, we knew the time had come to increase the number of cars. Both Grace and Tucker needed cars to get to work.
Luckily, Grace bought her own car. We talked about used cars; we considered a lease, but Grace dived right into buying a new car. An adorable Fiat.

Spencer spent the summer at college in Athens, Ohio. We let him take our second car, a Volkswagen Passat. He has been searching for a job and being a delivery person might be in the cards for him once the college students head back to school this month.

For Tucker, we started off buying a Chevrolet Suburban that he could use for his landscaping business. Then a few days later, he quit landscaping and got a job delivering sandwiches for Jimmy Johns. That behemoth vehicle was definitely the wrong car for delivering.
So  we dug deep and bought a 2002 Subaru Outback. The gas mileage is much better and he can get into tight spaces quickly.

We didn't notice until they were purchased that all three of our children have green cars. 

We can check buying cars off our list of things to do now. All of the kids have cars. Earl and I are sharing a car, and we won't worry about getting any more until we move to France.
Grace moves into an apartment at the end of the month and just this morning we sat in the dining room peering into the living room and deciding who would get which pieces of furniture when we left for France.
Of course, Grace was the only child there, so she claimed most of the items. It's strange to think of moving and leaving most of our possessions behind.
For those of you who have moved to another country, a country across the sea, what do you think I need to bring with me?
I think it's different going from the U.K. to France because you can load your car and go through the Chunnel.
Other than clothes and pictures and some books, what must I be certain to take along?
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs, too, so you can get your fix of France dreams.