Another year older

When I was turning 50 and was having a little trouble with that age - for one reason my mother died at 49 and I thought she was old then - a wise woman told me, it's only a number. I've never forgotten that and now that I'm turning 55 - half way through that 5th decade I still choose to embrace the fact that it's only a number.

So, I've been asking people if we celebrate golden birthdays, well here in MN we do, which is the year you turn the age of your birthdate then what happens when you turn the age of the year you were born? Then I thought at least half my kids will probably never celebrate that year - or did when they were too young to appreciate it. Yet another reason to be happy I was born in 1955.

Now I'm thinking I should set some lofty goals for this year. That I'll have to think about. The past 3 or 4 mos. we've been in survival mode, so the goal was simply making it through one day at a time. I hate living that way as it tends to suck the joy out of life. Starting today - I'm going to make some intentional goals. The first goal is to get our eating under control. We've only made it to the farmer's market once or twice this summer - generally we've gone weekly. Today's goal is to make a healthy menu plan and shop for it. It does make it trickier when the weather is so hot and we don't like to run the oven when the air is on, but we'll figure it out.

Another exciting event this week was Jacob started school at a charter school that we've been on the waiting list for and the first day of school they called to let us know there was an opening for Ella. Amazingly, the seat available was right next to one of her best friends and the class has 3 other friends. Such an above and beyond answer to prayer. She is grieving the loss of her old school, but I know she is where she should be and that that will pass.

Today I plan to enjoy and be grateful for this day, no matter what challenges it may bring.

Finding Joy Amidst Frustration

At our house there are lots of birthdays.  We're are coming into the season where from Aug. 10 to Oct. 4 we have 7 birthdays.  That's a lot of celebrating.  I turned 54 yesterday and Chad turns 35 tomorrow - we adopted him at 8 yrs. old and thought we'd be successful if we could keep him home till he was 16 yrs. old - well he's still here.  He was such a wild cat when he came we just thought we'd never make it.  What you are able to handle as a parent grows as your experience grows.  At least it has for us.

The other day we had several days of Callie really acting out. Jumping all over the furniture, squirting hair lotion, shampoo etc. on the carpet etc. We thought it was because her beloved Julie was gone for a few days and she missed her or that summer school was over, so her routine really was messed up until...... she came into the kitchen looking like a vampire with a tooth in her hand and her mouth dripping with blood.  She obviously had had some tooth pain for several days, but was unable to communicate that to us or even decipher what the pain meant to herself.

On Sun. Ella had a friend over and the two of them went into the girl's room locking the door and Callie and the boys out.  Mark discovered Callie - again - spilling lotion all over the carpet right outside the locked door.  Again, she was obviously mad, but unable to verbalize and therefore acted out.  So, now we'll have to see if we can get ahead of those behaviors by helping her identify and express her feelings.  

I realize what an awful superpower reading minds would be, but sometimes I think it'd really be helpful when trying to figure Callie out.  How frustrating it must be to have these emotions bubbling inside you can't express and probably can't even identify. How very much Callie has to teach me about patience and finding joy amid a world that must just baffle her at every corner.

Little Man is 6!

Today is Jacob's BD - 6 yrs. old. Yesterday was a day off of school. He really wanted to get his presents, which I had already purchased and we thought - well, why not - let's have a birthday today. So, we made a cake, wrapped the presents and grilled some burgers and it was all good. He was happy and we had a stress free early BD. We generally keep BD's low key around here anyway, so it was just fine. As we were singing happy birthday Mark said - so how many BD's do you think we've celebrated around here. Well, let's calculate - to the best of our ability we gather it's around 300! Good grief! I think I need a nap just thinking about it.

Happy Birthday Jacob!