Starting Over

that they excelled at. Kristoff blared music while he worked while Serenity spent her time talking herself through her projects. In between her conversations with herself, she would eith

ud room. She put her brush down and went to give Kristoff a heads up on how late it was getting. They should start finding a

e, putting the cover back on the light fixture. She yelled up at

nd I will be done up here. I'll put

put away. She knew that she wouldn't be able to finish painting the last wa

. She told him to go look through their supplies and dec

ound Kristoff standing above the cooler with a few pre-mad

t some charcoal going? If we cooked all of thes

oking. She dug through the cooler to find her bag of veggies she had prepa

enjoy their little feast outside. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky and she w

progress made today and how they would spend their morning before they headed back to their se

ss to sleep that night, Kristoff gave her a quick

to him, "I love you, too. I really appreciate

surroundings. They both got up, enjoyed a little coffee, ate a light breakfast

he had all four of them powered and working, he hoped to inst

et everything loaded up so that they wouldn't have to carry everything through the house and out the front door due to her staining the s

trol them. He gave Serenity a warning that he would be finished with changing the other bulbs out within the hour and that he would b

n the truck and get started on the long drive. The trip back to Middleton would take over 8 hours, guessing based on

over her half full can of stain. Serenity rushed to grab it before all of her stain dumped through the cracks and on

ont door!? He knew I was still here working!' As she tried to clean up the mess that had been made while finishing the last section of the floor, she was steaming on the inside. She wanted to say something back to him. She wanted to point out that he was rude to her when he had ma

nto the truck. They also had prepared themselves some of last nights leftovers for lunch that they would eat in the car as they drove. Serenity was relieved

hings they needed to do at the new house. She had pulled out her notebooks and jotted down a few more materials they would need to buy. Eventua

e coddled but she could also appreciate a little kindness and affection on occasion. She wondered if she had made a mistake w

g the crop. Freezing and canning parts of their crop and turning other parts into finished goods to preserve such as making their jams and their pizza and pasta sauce. Climbing into the boat at 6 AM to tackle a day of fishin

rking on a project during the day and tell her he would be home when she got home from work and he would leave her waiting until dinner time without a call or text to update her. When he would have a day home from work and do nothing and still wait on her to come home and prepare dinner or he would leave the dishwasher full of clean dishes and

. As they got closer to completing the return trip, Serenity hoped that turning their lives upside down, uprooting and starting over would push change a

ke Serenity up. "Hey Serenity, we're here. You want to help me c

nto his house, he started putting things away. Serenity told him, "I'm going to go start loading up my car so th

and he was still inside she started feeling a little miffed that he had asked her to help him but then didn't come out to return the favor.

king. He turned around and she stretched up and tiptoes, g

"I would go over and help you unload your

ask him to drive up the road and around the corner to her house to help her, but he felt he needed to reject that idea

e always put himself first. Serenity thought to herself, 'Wouldn't most men have stopped by my house first to help me unload and then go back to his place so we could bo

given him one too many chances and had forgiven him one too many times. Maybe her giving him so much credit for the ch

he full benefit of the doubt and a clean chance without the weight of the past while they were making all of these changes. But