A Shift

Last night with M was pretty difficult and brought up lots of worries for the future and reminders of what the girls are going through.  Today I tried to keep life simple and in the present.  Beautiful weather helped and we spent a lot of time outside playing and being together. My goal was normal.  I was too tired to handle anything else.

I tired to shift my focus today and try to remember to be "fun" mom and keep moving forward despite all the (excuse my language) crap.  In the spirit of an attempt to switch gears, here is a list of some great things that have happened lately:

1.  I threw both D and L awesome birthday parties.  We rented an indoor soccer field for D's birthday and a gaggle of boys played football for 1.5 hours and had a blast.  He had a great time.  For L's party, we had a dinosaur theme and from the decorations to the cake to the activities it was one of my best.  I love throwing parties and it was a blast.  He was so sweet with all of his cousins and friends.

2.  Interim grades for this quarter for the little kids were really good.  M's grades went up.  A was notified he's up for junior national honor society.  D is right on track for his usual first honors.

3.  Work is settling down a bit and I'm really liking the project I'm on.  It's still, well, "work," but I'm feeling better about how things are going and how much better it will be in the fall when L is in full day kindergarten.

4.  I've been reading some really good books.  It's a nice escape. Many of my favorite authors have new books coming out soon too and that's something to look forward to.

5.  I love my Nook.  I rock at Words with Friends...another good escape. 

6.  I came up with a new laundry system with the kids and I think its going to work.  Color-coded bins and and a little more responsibility on their end is hopefully going to take a few things off my shoulder.

7.  I don't think I've mentioned her before, but we have the best cat in the world.  She makes us all laugh and seems to instinctively know when I need an extra snuggle.

8.  The weather has been spectacular around here.  Everyone getting outside has been a good thing, especially the boys. 

9.  Last Friday while the girls were at the birthday party for KT, I took A and L on a herpetology event at a local regional park.  We trooped through the some vernal ponds, mud and woods and A found his elusive spotted salamander.  He had been asking for weeks about this program and I was glad we could go.  It was cold, wet and dark, but the boys had fun and I was glad to be able to do that for them.

10.  Baby H (S's new daughter) is getting baptized on Sunday.  It will be nice to have a family event celebrating this new, adorable little girl.

Things still pretty much suck (again sorry for the crass language).  I am trying to work hard to remember the good things going on around me.  I've felt lately that I'm stuck in such a dark place and exercises like this help me when things get truly out of control like last night.  Thanks to my blogging buddy Rachel for inspiring me to recognize the good when I'm stuck in the bad.