Tuesday

Yep. Still here. Thanks for checking. :)

I've been busier than a bee but then- what else is new and aren't we all? I've decided that the faster time goes, the more stuff I have to figure out how to squeeze into my days. It's exhausting.

In addition to all my job searching and home-based work that needs to be done (Home-based work. I'm thinking of adding that to my resume. Maybe it will get me IN the door before I have to explain that it means laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, overseeing homework, constant pet care, constant child care......truly, being at home *is* its own little home-based business. Just one that I don't need a small business equipment lease to run.), I am also up to my eyeballs in PTO work. Thankfully, once this week is over, it should slow down for me a bit. You know..until the next week when there is another meeting. But it's all good. It gives me the feeling of being needed and successful outside of my parenting role. Both feelings that I neeeeeeed.

If only it paid.

But that's that.
Real life.
The hard stuff.

In the mix there, I also got to have some fun. We need fun to be able to survive, don't you think? Anyway.....Stephanie, all three kids, and I took a weekend trip to meet my 9 week old niece (who actually just turned 10 weeks yesterday). I haven't been up to see my family since the quick baby shower trip in June and it was good to "go home" again. I love driving through Seattle - well, you know, not the actual driving through, but I do love the feeling of being "home". But the best feelings? Holding that tiny miracle and seeing the kids holding a real miracle right in their arms. And introducing the woman I love to my family. Not necessarily in that order. :)

The kids had been brimming over with excitement for the week leading up to the trip and it was so cute to watch them fall all over themselves to scramble out of the car and race to the front door. They couldn't wait to get their hands on baby Madeleine. Neither could I.

Bliss!





The trip up was really good but, as always, way too short. Way. Too. Short.

And now it's back to reality. Back to the hard stuff. Back to trying to create calm in the chaos that is my life.