Living in Limbo

There's this weird time between when someone dies and when the services are held that is like living in limbo.  In our family the time is a bit longer than normal because we're spread all over the country.  You have to allow people a few days to arrive before anything can move forward.
We've used the time to finalize Dad's wake and funeral, of course.  We've also tried to take care of a few small house projects that have been neglected.  We took care of some errands and did some cleaning. 
The big change to come from this limbo time is Daddy assembled the girls' bunk beds.  Their birthday present went from ready-to-assemble to ready-to-use.  It took the better part of one afternoon and the next morning to make happen, but he stayed focused until we rolled them into bed last night.
The really big news came from the girls' end-of-the-year golf camp bar-b-que.  The brunette twin won first place in the golf skills competition.  She bounced into Gramma's house beaming with her trophy in hand.  When we left yesterday, we forgot the trophy, so we had to go back to get it.  She won't leave it out of her sight for a moment.  She is so thrilled to have a trophy of her own.
Sometimes when we're staining the patio chairs or cleaning the kitchen we can forget that we still have Dad's wake and funeral coming up.  Other times I start crying just because something reminds me of Dad.  It's one of the things that makes this time so difficult.  You can try to make it seem like business as usual, but there's sadness always in the background.