This episode is all about doing the work and trusting the process and leaving the outcome to itself.

The good news is that the frenzied real estate market in the headlines for so many months seems to be slowing down a bit. And there is no bad news. We set up showings for Friday through Monday and it’s just now Sunday evening. The feedback has all been positive and we feel good about that. There is sort of a vulnerability about offering your home up for evaluation, so it’s nice to get a good “review”.

After MWM Part 1, the kind and generous offers for weekend accommodations were really touching! We ended up checking into our friend Janet’s house late Friday morning. I would like to take this moment to recommend overnight visits with friends who live in your same town. It’s fun. That said, we could have navigated around showings, but it was nice not to have to be constantly picking up after ourselves. Now we’re happily relaxing in our “show ready” house.

After dinner, I walked the 2 blocks to Lake Wingra. Knowing tonight is a full moon, I wasn’t expecting to see it so early – if at all, because it’s cloudy. While I was standing there on the grass, though, the gray clouds formed a perfect frame, matted in pink, where the rising moon briefly appeared in full. It was breathtaking. Where will I walk to from our new house when I wander out the door on a whim?

That’s right, I guess there is more news; we have an accepted offer on a new house! One day about a month ago, I was looking at listings a little further afield than usual and saw these 55+ (?!) new builds in Belleville. At first, I thought of our friends Anne and John, who are planning to move out here from Colorado late this summer. (Jim and John are childhood pals who grew up together in Madison.) We’d all toyed with the idea of creating a little retirement community for ourselves and I’ll be danged if it didn’t happen. Jim and I went out and looked first, then John came out on Amtrak and we all went out there and the next thing I knew, we were shaking hands with the builder and off to New Glarus for baked goods. Our new houses, just across the street from each other, will be ready in September. Nice, huh? So, see, even if it takes us longer than anticipated to have an accepted offer on this house, that’s just less time we have to figure out where to be in between. O.k., we have a few good ideas. Nothing’s for sure but here’s a hint: it will likely be a lot like that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz movie where she collects a lot of rocks.

So, everything is still more or less up in the air and there’s none of the expected anxiety. As it turned out, the weekend was very easy. We had a couple of nice meals, a lot of laughs, and some great conversations with our gracious hostess. We went to two Cargo Coffee locations in one day and had treats at both of them. It turned out to be a lot like a little vacation.

Now, we just carry on with our lives. I’m reminded that plenty of people go through this process while working 9-5 jobs, taking care of children and/or elders, and experiencing any all manner of huge life changes. Certainly, we can keep coffee cups off the counter and miss a day of Jeopardy, if necessary.

That’s it. Maybe I’m just exhausted but it’s really o.k. to just wait for whatever the outcome will be.

Oh, and Jim sincerely complimented me on handling our listing and likes having me as his agent. So, there’s that. And that’s really nice.

Time to watch one last eclipse on Emerald Street.