2023!

This year...has been a year.  I realized at some point that we have a big change in our lives every 5 years.  Fifteen years ago, at the age of 25, we bought our first jet skis (yay!) and my husband went back to school for the 1st time since finishing his initial program.  Ten years ago, at 30, we became parents when we adopted Luke.  Five years ago, at 30, we adopted Sam, Matt started a new job (same position), and Luke started school.  

This year...this year.  We turned 40, Matt's Mom died, Luke really started sports, Sam started kindergarten, and Matt went back to school (....again).  

It felt like a year that just kept trying my sanity over and over and over again.  As soon as I'd adjust to our new reality, something else would change. But let's back up to the beginning of 2023...

Luke was wrestling which was our first experience with SPORTS.  And you all, we were not prepared (I may have scared some of my sisters from ever putting their kids in sports).  Sam and I spent so much time sitting in bleachers, waiting for Luke's short time on the mat. (Matt was at every meet too but he was sometimes helping or corralling kids.)  Luckily, we had pretzels with cheese at nearly every meet, a fact that Sam reminded me of when I was lamenting the start of wrestling conditioning again this fall.  

I am also on the committee for our school's dinner/auction which culminated in February but took up a decent amount of time the first two months of the year.  That experience really was a teaching lesson and did give me confidence to start my own thing at school.  And it was fun to work with my sister, on our own sub-committee of 2, enough that we agreed to do it again this year.  March also brought big birthdays for both boys (5 & 10) and a total of 3 parties celebrating all of that.  AND...the end of wrestling, right as it was starting to get warm enough for boys to get out energy outside.

In April we made it back to Chicago, the first time in 19 years (we were there right before they dedicated the Bean last time!).  It was our spring break trip and really was a lot of fun.   It was nice doing a big city trip that was much closer than New York (although I am nearly desperate to get back there again soon too.)  I started dreading the fall,when Sam would start school and I'd lose my dream job (being a stay-at-home Mom).  I spent many hours crying and trying to figure out what all I'd do with my time, once I was childless all school day. But SUMMER and warmer weather and all that helped.

Third quarter.  This is when it felt like everything changed.  Matt's Mom was emergency admitted to the hospital in the first part of the month and died the next day.  That was unexpected and life changing.  She had a truly beautiful send-off by the whole family, other than a longer life, really couldn't have asked for anything more.  I still get emotional thinking about those 2 days in the hospital and then the week before her funeral.  It was a lot.  

Just a few days after the funeral we left for our long planned trip to Florida.  I had about 1½ days to throw everything together but it was so nice to have a solid week of family time and a break together.  Other than dealing with grief, it was a wonderful trip that all worked out much better than I expected.  We followed that up with back to back camping trips, hitting up Jellystone again (2nd of 3 times for the year) and to Michigan.  And then 3 days later school started.  

Exactly one month, to the day, after my mother-in-law died, Sam started kindergarten, a day which I had been dreading for years but especially the last few months.  That solo walk home was SO HARD.  I cried his first 10 days of school.  It was hard coming home to an empty house every day. I had thought we'd have another baby by the time Sam was in school and I could prolong my SAHM job for awhile, but no such luck.  That was a really hard transition although I did get some time to catch up on the MANY things that had been pushed off for the past month (or longer).  

Also in August Luke started running cross country, a sport I enjoyed more than expected.  My sister had 3 of her boys running and we'd often meet at the playground during practice to let the kids play and we'd talk.  That was really a bright point in the cross country season.

THEN, right after Labor Day, Matt went back to school.  His is an intensive program where he was taking 18 credit hours this first semester and also working 32 hours a week, in order to keep our insurance and benefits.  It. Was. Stressful.  It's all remote but he was logging on for zoom class Monday - Thursday nights, plus watching lectures, doing labs, and lots of homework.  Many cross country meets he'd watch lectures in the car, come out to watch Luke's race, and then back to the car to watch more lectures while the rest of the races ran.  We have one more year of this although this first semester was his heaviest class load.  But in January he starts clinicals, working for free! Yay. (And still working 32 hours a week for pay.)

The third quarter had SO MANY changes.  It's also my heaviest running time (I ran 226 miles July - September) but that may have helped keep me sane.  You know, exercise, endorphins, all of that.   When I look back at those three months...I really don't know how we did it.

Fall was more of the same, cross country season wrapping up, Matt very busy with school.  A TWO month break from sports before wrestling conditioning started.  I stopped crying every day Sam was in school (progress!).  Settling into all the adjustments of the previous few months.  We went back to Jellystone over fall break and it felt like a ghost town compared to all our previous visits over the summer (I am ALSO desperate to get Jellystone stays booked for 2024 but so much is uncertain with Matt's work & school schedules right now.)

That brings us to now.  Christmas and prepping and shopping for more bottle brush trees has really helped me stay positive, Christmas always cheers me up.  December has proved to be flat out crazy with helping at school, working (I picked up another bookkeeping job this fall!), doing committee work, and prepping for Christmas (I enjoy the Christmas of it all the very most.).  SO appreciating and savoring this Christmas break because it's the calmest life ever is for us.  

It's been a year.  A year that has tried my sanity on more than one occasion but we are still going.  (I hardly mentioned the turning 40 of it all, man, I'm many months into that and still not sure what to think of it!)  2024 doesn't seem like it'll be letting up anytime soon but maybe I've figured out how to handle it all better?? (Maybe...no guarantees, AT ALL.)  We'll keep going, chugging away, doing our best.  This is life and it's not always easy.  There is still much to be grateful for and much joy to be found, even if we just have to look a bit harder (when in doubt, pretzels with cheese always helps). 

2022!
2021!
2020!
2019!
2018!
2017!
2016!