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by Hope

The wedding was beautiful. The night went long with clean up.

And this morning, everyone flew out to return home.

I remain at my grandmother’s house until tomorrow to get it all cleaned up. I will pick up Addie from the kennel and hit the road tomorrow afternoon to spend one more night at my younger daughter’s place in Atlanta before I began meandering road trip back to Texas.

Today I will rest. And go to my storage unit to pick up the things I need to take back with me…

1. Winter clothes or at least something fall-y, Texas doesn’t typically get cold.
2. Some books.
3. Craft supplies.

I made sure to leave plenty of my car for the return trip to take back some stuff. As of now, I don’t have any plans to return to Georgia, so trying to think future.

After the last week, I need this down day. Desperately.

What’s Next

After I get back to my parents I have one month until Beauty and her husband Redhead arrive for Thanksgiving. During that month, I have one big goal…clean out the “catch all” room. The closet is piled high with boxes full of paperwork and ??  and we’ve just kind of piling things in their that don’t have a home.

The goal is to have the room guest ready before they arrive. Outside of the garage and my mom’s closet, it’s the last space in the house that I have not cleaned out and rearranged.

So for today, I will rest. Retrieve the list of things I’ve compiled from my storage unit. And finish getting ready to head back to Texas tomorrow.

Can’t wait to share the wedding pics…or at least a few of them!

Hope

Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.

But life has a way of rewriting your plans.

A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.

Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.

Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.

She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.