Catching Up

I realize it has been WAY too long since I sat down to write.  For the handful of you that read this, I'm sorry.  I promise to do better.  Since I am never one to say 'well I was busy' as an excuse, because let's face it we are all WAY too busy, I will instead try to fill in some of the gaps.

The last time I posted, the girls (that would be our girls, Kirsten and Annika) were starting their Christmas break.  While I usually enjoy these breaks from school  (because it means I don't have to worry about making sure Annika gets to bed, or that there are items which can easily be packed into Kirsten's school lunch, or that I need to remember to ask if homework has been done) this break seemed unusually chaotic.  Kirsten had a million different things planned and I found it very difficult to keep track of where she was going when.  I realized over break that my short term memory is not only failing, it has F-A-I-L-E-D.  I'm not really sure what is going on with that, but I found that no matter how many times she told me what she was doing when, I could never remember.  Annika's schedule was almost as hectic.  All of it good, but just hard for me to keep up with.  In the midst of all of that I found it very difficult to get it all together to cook dinner.  I mean when people are coming and going at different times, I hate planning and cooking meals.  If there are less than 4 eating at home, I often feel why bother?.  This isn't a HUGE deal, but it did mean that Josh got gyped out of home cooked meals every night.  I found myself asking him way too often, 'so what would you like for dinner tonight?'.  I don't think he minded that much, but I'm not sure.  So our Christmas break was filled with take-out; Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and maybe one trek thru the Taco Bell drive-thru for good measure.

Christmas was somewhat uneventful.  We had a change in the usual Christmas routine.  Christmas Eve we were blessed to share with good friends who came for a meal and then we all went to church together.  It was a night that allowed us to have some quiet as a family.  Christmas Day was also a little uncharacteristic for us.  We found that we had nothing scheduled until 5 pm that day.  Again, strange, but a nice day to rest and take our time with each other. 

A few days later, Josh headed back to his campus apartment.  This was a little strange for us.  We realized it was the first year he wasn't at home with us on New Year's.  Dean and I realized we had reached a milestone in our parenthood.  We are still trying to figure out how we feel about that exactly.  New Year's Eve found Kirsten juggling friends and Annika enjoying her new bff.  For a second year in a row, Dean and I found ourselves without an invite to New Year Festivities.  Again, this felt strange, especially when later you see and hear of others' activities for the evening.  Then again, we were both battling colds and thoroughly enjoyed watching a movie together and going to bed early.  Again asking ourselves, are we THAT old??  The reality is no, we are not that old, we are just that tired.  Many discussions were had about boundaries.  We realize that while there are lots of good things that we can be involved in, it isn't always good FOR us to be involved in them.  We still need to figure this one out, but the topic it is definitely getting our attention as we have both now been battling a nagging cold the last 3 weeks, more than likely an indirect result of overcommitment.

more catching up later.