well ...

It looks like my blog is suffering from a serious case of neglect. Hmm ... one would think that since I have all this free time on my hands, I could be a blogging fiend. Not so, folks. Not so.

I have adjusted fairly well to being unemployed, and I think that I only went through five bottles of wine to get there. And I have a back up bottle in the fridge. Not bad. Although, in addition to the lack of funds, I have noticed that I have gained about 3/4 of a pound for every week of my unemployment, so now I am not only unemployed, trying to decide which direction to steer my future, but my pants don't fit. Nice.

*Deep Breath*

It's just past the mid point of April. My dear husband celebrated a birthday last week, and I realize that I do not treat him as well as I probably should. He is so kind to me, and while I am not mean to him, per se, I could probably be nicer to him. I should work on that. Yesterday, after I took a particularly nasty spill on the bike, while taking The Oldest Child to a birthday party, he even stopped and got me a fountain soda (I love fountain soda, especially at this time of year on very lovely days), without me asking. Seriously, the man knows that a 32 ounce soda will make my day. And then, while we were out last night, and I wasn't moving very much at all because every part of my body aches, he got me a cup of coffee. When somebody remarked that he didn't know how I drank it, our simultaneous response was, "it depends on the day and the coffee" ... in all those other moments when you think they aren't noticing things, they are. Yes, it sounds stupid, after all, it's only coffee, but it tells me that he is paying attention. I love him.

It's a quiet, drizzley morning at our house, and as I look out my window, and see my yard greening up, while sipping a cup of hot coffee ... my life is good. Yes, there are a dozen things I would change or improve upon, but overall, life is good to me. I have had my fair share of rough spells, at times thinking it was way more than I deserved, but life is good. I am slowly making the changes I want to make, so I can live my life, our life, the way we want.

For me, this means slowing down, and appreciating the everyday, the ordinary.

We took a planned vacation (meaning, before I became unemployed) last week, coming home on my husbands birthday. We spent four days in Arizona visiting with his grandparents. The Bee was sick with some sort of goofy fever on and off for most of our time out there, so we were definitely slower than we would have been otherwise. And, if you factor in the newly casted left arm that Q is sporting, it was a slower paced vacation. The kids drew picture after picture for The Uber Big G's, their fridge is now well decorated. They wrote and told stories. We had the chance to go across the street and pick oranges and lemons and grapefruit off of the neighbors fruit trees. Then, we brought it home and made fresh squeezed lemonade, and Q ate two oranges, that he had picked not ten minutes prior. They chased lizards through the rocks, flew cheap glider planes that the Easter Bunny brought and blew bubbles for The Uber Big G's. We came back from vacation feeling relaxed, although tired from being up with uncomfortable and/or sick kids every night that we were there, and ready to transition back into real life.

So, even though The List is a mile long, that's okay. So what if my house isn't perfect and needs some love and attention. I don't care - it'll happen. The world is going to keep turning, regardless of what is going on in our little corner of the world, so I'm just going to keep going on too.