The kids’ goal for today was to go through everything in their rooms and toss out whatever was beyond its useful life and then box up whatever they wanted to donate. We shared in the misery and tackled out closets, but two hours later Char and I came to realization that we’ve done a reasonable job over the years of not accumulating too much crap. The kids had little to throw out and only a few things to donate; Char weeds out the clothes they’ve outgrown yearly, and whatever doesn’t fit someone else goes to Goodwill. Old toys in good shape have gone to cousins and friends, some to a church charity. The upside is that the house is ready to pack up when we’re ready to have it done (there will be no doing it ourselves; I know Char, if the kids and I went at it, she’d be trying to help, and that’s just not happening.)

I need to go through the garage and hire someone who specializes in estate sales to handle the things in my Dad’s house, because I honestly don’t want to try to do anything with what’s left of his things. TK has removed everything from his house; it only needs a good cleaning (not that he didn’t clean; it’s just been sitting there and smells a bit stale.)

The seller of the house we’re buying has a few small things he wants to address before we bring in a house inspector (getting the fireplace cleaned, replacing cracked outlet covers and two shower heads. Small things we could easily do but he doesn’t want risking any hiccups.) We have a pool inspector who will check the pool, as well as a pest inspector, this week. I want a separate HVAC inspection, but it’s not a deal breaker; I just want to know if I need to replace the AC or furnace before we move in.

Char wants to know what we’ll do if the sale on this property falls through at the last minute; it’s a hypothetical because we both know it won’t, but a general what will we do? I don’t think we’d do anything different. The kids are all excited about moving, she’s excited; I’m ambivalent but I see the merits of getting the kids closer to civilization. So we’ll move either way.

On the dojang side, TK is looking for smaller space for the dojang, and if he finds it, he’ll move the school. More transitioning; right now Char and I own 75% of the school, having bought out Dack years ago, but I want to remove myself from anything involving its management. When we opened the school it was supposed to be TK’s baby, but along the way shit happened and he needed breathing room, then Dack wrecked my car and damn near died and never got back to the shape he’d been in. It didn’t seem like a big deal as long as Char was teaching and handling what TK couldn’t, but now we’re ready to back off and hand the reigns over to him completely.

I’ll still teach, but only a few classes a week. The kids will still train (Alex is determined to get to 2nd degree and Rachel is ready to test for first; Kevin is close but as things stand now our criteria for testing for black includes being 12 years old…something I suspect TK will change because he never agreed with me about it.) Once Char is cleared to go back she’ll train, but I’m not sure if she’ll teach again, or if she just wants to do something else or nothing at all.

I don’t know how we’ll handle the official ownership of the dojang; it’s not a monetary thing, but right now everything is tied up under my name, and I’m not sure if we’ll “sell” to TK or just keep the status quo. It’s up to him.

What seems to be more pressing for us is finding out how we operate as a normal family; dinner as a family every night, the kids having time for activities other than TKD. For the kids it’s always been getting picked up at school and taken to the dojang where they do their homework and choke back a snack before their classes, wait around for each other, wait for Mom or Dad to teach, go home, shower, go to bed. Weekends have been the closest thing to normal they’ve had, but being so far from their friends, it’s only almost normal.

Alex wants to play basketball and swim on the school teams. Rachel wants to run track. Kevin just wants time. Up until now they’ve kept that mostly to themselves because they didn’t see any way to get those things (we would have found a way; it would have been a PITA but we would have tried) but now that they see the direction we’re headed they’re bubbling over with the things they want to try. For this, I will be a SAHD as long as I can.

Oddly, none of this would likely be happening if Char hadn’t nearly died on July first.