Before kids, we had three bedrooms upstairs: my random storage room, my office, and our bedroom. Then Rose came along, and I lost the storage. With David, I lost my office: my desk moved into our bedroom, my file cabinet and office supplies moved into David's closet, and books all over the house.

But now, Sally has moved out (pause a moment to be sad), and we offered Rose the chance to move out of her tiny bedroom and into John's office. Of course, domino style, this meant John moved to a new office space where Sally used to live. Since John and I like to watch t.v. at night after the kids have gone to bed and the t.v. room was across the hall from John's office, now Rose's room, we moved the t.v. downstairs and set it up with a couch. Are you following so far? We moved my desk out of the bedroom and my office supplies out of David's closet. Still to come, a bed for the new guest room downstairs.

All of this doesn't come near to describing the many trips up and down the stairs with beloved plastic horses and folders of school work from 5th grade, the bags of too small clothing that finally made it out of her drawers, the stuffed animals, games, and toys that went to find a new home. Rose always does a big room clear out yearly, but this was a really big clear out, and it had that kid to teen feel when she let go of some unicorns.

Yesterday, I took five bags to Mary's Place, a homeless shelter for families near us. It was gratifying to find new homes for all the games, but the kids and I had a painful conversation about teen boys not being allowed to stay with their mothers. What happens to them we all wondered.

I don't like change, and even though I like having things in their place, those places are usually archeological piles where only I can identify where the dentist appointment reminder card is. So, the effort of deciding where to put my mailers vs. my summer hats is hard for me. (On the other hand, during the big rearrange, I resurrected several hats.) I still wander into Rose's room looking for the freezer. (That was a major adventure, moving the freezer downstairs.) But, I'm liking that all four of us can fit on the couch to watch Harry Potter. I'm liking all the space and light in my new office. I like that when I skype with my students they don't see my bed in the background. And I like that we are using the space. If we have to lose Sally, it's good to gain more house.