Well, that was the longest blogging break I've taken in over 10 years. Not entirely on purpose. Last spring I thought I'd be taking it very slow on the blog for awhile just because of my kids, packing in summer activities with them and getting them back to school. It had been looming in my head for MONTHS that my youngest would start kindergarten this fall and with a pending VERY open schedule I wanted to make more time for my kids until then and cutting back greatly on my blogging gave me a bit more time. Even though I had already cut back quite a bit.
Summer was going great. Lots of adventures, finally doing the things I had booked months earlier. Then everything turned on a dime. A little over a month ago, we were coming back from a weekend camping trip with some of my family when my husband got a call from his sister saying their Mom was emergency admitted to the hospital. Luckily, we were almost home and he was able to head for the hospital (the one where he actually works) about an hour after getting that call.
What followed was a surreal and terrible and beautiful and sad 33 hours largely spent at the hospital until she died the following night.
Losing a parent, the first of our combined 4, was not something we had planned for this summer.
Those hours I spent at the hospital by Matt's side and with much of his family will remain with me for a very long time. (Very thankful for my parents and all the help they gave us with the boys so they were not at the hospital as much as us!) They were beautiful and terrible, all at once. It completely changed everything, as much as we expected to bury our parents in our lifetime, we weren't expecting it to happen already.
It was a whirlwind week until her funeral. Less than 72 hours after that we left for our long planned trip to Florida. It was wonderful to get away and have family time, just be together, although it was also too easy to forget everything that had just happened at home. We were home from that trip for 4 nights before we left for a camping trip. Home from that for 3 hours to do laundry, refresh our food, and leave the bedding, before we left for another camping trip. Had a long day trip on the way home from that, and 3 days later school started. One month after my MIL died.
It was a CRAZY, crazy month.
I am just finally starting to get to the many, many things that got pushed off in grief, and then in a whirlwind of trips. All with the feelings of sending my baby to kindergarten, something I had been seriously dreading for a full 6 months. (I seriously underestimated the amount of rearranging my whole life would take with that change. I'm sure I'll blog about it when I'm a bit more caught up.)
July is always one of my favorite months of the year. We pack in fun and adventures (and my birthday) before school starts too early in August. But this one took on a very different tone and brought on all kinds of feelings. There was still a lot of joy in it, before and even in all the grief. (Did I also google "how to help your spouse through the loss of a parent"...yes. Yes, I did.)
So, July 2023. Won't be forgotten! Lets please me less memorable next year.
Looking back:
1 year ago: {10} Fantastic Book Covers, part 2
2 years ago: What to Do with Fresh Peaches
3 years ago: Backyard String Lights - A How-To & Shopping List
4 years ago: {7} Books About Space Travel (still relevant to our interests!)
5 years ago: On Fridays I Wear Blue (still true)
6 years ago: Blackberry Sweet Cream Ice Cream
7 years ago: Weekend in Holland, Michigan
8 years ago: Easy Peasy Coffee Cake (we still make this)
9 years ago: Our Michigan Vacation (our first KOA deluxe cabin!)
10 years ago: From Being an Accountant to a Stay at Home Mom
2) Perfect peaches, I love the week when I gorge myself on peaches.
3) Ice cream in the backyard, we used to do this more. Should get back to it...
4) Flowers blooming!
5) A new camping dinner my mom found and it was amazing. We made it ourselves a few weeks later.
6) And banana boats in at camp, I hadn't had one in a long time.
7) At camp! We had a nice yard between our cabin and my sister's that was fantastic with all the kids!
8) Our green beans going crazy at home!
9) Squeezed in a couple zoo trips before our pass expired!
10) The one flowers sent to the funeral home just for us, although we didn't realize it until days later. They were pretty.
11) I didn't get as much porch reading this summer before the boys were awake but I get a lot more solo runs!
12) Running on the beach with Matt! I got him to do 2 runs with me in Florida! It was hot but we did it!
13) Eating out at the beach!
14) Cocoa Beach, I was leery but it ended up being amazing. Post coming, it's on my LONG list of things to catch up on.
15) Our pumpkins went crazy while we were gone. CRAZY. They definitely aren't contained by the bed we planned.
16) And zinnias finally blooming!
Books finished: 7, my first month under 10 since November 2015...
Miles ran: 60.2, did still hit my running goal!
Currently watching: ....it has been SO LONG since Matt & I watched something without the boys. Although in my solo time at home I have started trying to catch up to The Office Ladies again.
Most read post this month: The Fizzy Flamingo (I still don't understand this) and Peach Sorbet (this one is worth all the views, it's amazing)
Luke's current favorite song: "God's Country" by Blake Shelton
Sam's current favorite song: "Raised on Black and Tan" by Gaelic Storm and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Toby Keith (Matt LOVES his sons' interest in country music.) (He really, really doesn't like it.)
August has brought SCHOOL which has brought all. the. feelings. since I had now childless during the school day! More to come on that!
No comments:
Post a Comment