Appreciating some quiet time

Andrew left early this afternoon to take his mom back home.  He'll be back tomorrow afternoon.  Catherine and Thomas both left about 45 minutes ago; Catherine for work and Thomas for swim workouts.  I had taken my grandmother to an appointment, and had returned just a few minutes before the kids left.  The appointment didn't go well (a different post), and I am so, so grateful for the peace and especially the quiet of these moments.  I enjoyed having my mother-in-law here, but it was a lengthy visit.  She didn't bring anything to read of occupy her time, so I felt obligated to entertain her.  While we get along fine, it was just a lot of days of togetherness.  I am grateful to be able to sit here and not feel guilty for enjoying the quiet!

Christmas 2021 was fabulous

Christmas is over in just over an hour.  I had my concerns about how things would be today, and I must say, it was really a fabulous day.  The kids really enjoyed opening their gifts this morning, and so did the adults.  Just after noon we headed north to my mom's house, and we were surprised by a visit with two of my cousins and their four kids.  It was the BEST Christmas present!  I loved seeing them and that my kids got to see their kids.  It was truly special, and I am so, so grateful they came over today.  My sister was even in a very good mood.  After exchanging gifts with my mom, we came home and watched a movie together.  It was truly a very lovely day.

The fun actually began last evening.  Jen and I had a lot of fun driving to Indy to retrieve their oldest, and then we had an absolutely wonderful time sharing dinner with their family.  I am so incredibly grateful for their friendships.  We love them so much and they are a blessing to our family!

I know today was probably a little rough for my mother-in-law, but I think we've kept her fairly busy.  I know that we've had her laughing and she appreciated being with us.  It's been a truly lovely holiday.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2021

It's Christmas Eve once again.  It doesn't feel like it though.  For one thing, the temp outside is in the upper 50's.  For another thing, Catherine is working today.  She'll be off at 3:00 and should be able to make it to church with the family at 3:30.  I'm not going to church though.  I'm traveling to Indianapolis with our best friend in order to pick up their oldest who is flying in from California, if his flight out of Vegas can ever get in the air.  It's scheduled to be an hour late, but still in time for our families to join together for dinner this evening.  When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was always when we got together with my dad's family and did our Christmas.  We had a 1:00 meal, and spent the afternoon together.  Those are my memories of childhood.  Because we weren't a religious family, we rarely worried about church, although I enjoyed going as I got older, and I enjoy the tradition of attending with my family now.  This year though, it's all a little annoying that our church won't "count" at all this weekend, so I'm making the trip west to the airport.

He is in the air...looking forward to a lovely dinner with our dear friends!

Very full days

It's been a very busy first week of break, but a lovely busy.  Thomas and Andrew left Saturday to go get Andrew's mom and bring her back for the week.  But first, Steelers game on Sunday with a victory!  Meanwhile, Catherine was home "helping" me get things ready for the week.  I used quotes because her enthusiasm was lacking, but her attitude was not.  We've definitely reached the phase where she is accustomed to being on her own and doing very, very little (as evidenced by the status of her apartment often).  The travelers arrived back mid-afternoon Monday so Thomas could attend swim practice, and our week together was beginning!

Tuesday our family spent literally all day at our team's swim invitational...as in we arrived by 10:30 and the last of us finally arrived home at 6PM. Pizza for dinner.  Our former school was there, and that is always a treat to see old familiar faces, especially for Thomas.  We also have friends who have a swimmer son, and we enjoy the opportunity to catch up.  Thomas didn't have his best swims and was frustrated, but we pointed out that was going to happen given that he isn't practicing as much this year.

Yesterday I had to take my grandmother to another appointment.  Her wound from surgery is finally completely healing, now that it is being correctly dressed.  It's making life much better for her.  I was able to do some shopping on the way home, as well as help deal with the fact that Thomas ran out of gas on his way to a doctor appointment.  Ugh!  After the appointment and his swim workout, our family ventured over to see some gorgeous Christmas lights.  We enjoyed the time together.

Unfortunately as we were walking back into the house, Andrew's mother took a nasty fall.  Her wrist is pretty swollen today.  We'll definitely need to keep an eye on it, but today they are venturing out to do some shopping.  Fortunately it is her left wrist, but oh dear!

Our evenings have been quiet and have been full of binge watching the 'Big Bang Theory' on DVD.  Even though we see these episodes frequently, hearing his mother laugh so heartily at them makes us laugh as well!  It's truly delightful having her here.  I am especially grateful we still have another week of break to go, and of course we still have Christmas itself!

I miss these kinds of mornings

Andrew and Thomas are finishing up finals today.  That means it is only 1/2 day for Thomas, and he'll be home by Noon.  These are the two most challenging finals, and I wanted to get up before he left (even though my school is closed) so that I'd be able to pray for him.  It was still sleeping in an extra 45 minutes.  After they both left, I took a shower, and then I came out to enjoy my quiet morning.

When I was subbing, there would occasionally be days where I didn't work, and I'd have these beautifully quiet mornings.  Having one this time of year is especially awesome.  I made my coffee, and brought it into our living room where our larger tree is lit, and the crackling fireplace with Christmas music App is on the TV.  I lit a candle, and enjoyed the frosty views outside.  Catherine is even home, although she is still in bed (probably for another hours, given what I know about college kids!), and it's so peaceful.  I miss these peaceful mornings, and it is a beautiful way to begin our two week break!

Just in case I loved it so much once wasn't enough

The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas trees.  We have a decent sized tree that goes in our living room, and then we have a smaller tree that goes in our family room.  It was tougher to find a place to put the tree since we've rearranged the room, but I was insistent that we have a tree since this is where we spend the majority of our time.  I am the person who puts all the lights on the tree.  It is definitely not my favorite thing, but I want it to look nice.

About a week ago, I was sitting on the couch in our family room, and I saw some lights on the tree flicker, and then the strand went out.  And of course, not the strand on top, not the strand on the bottom, but the MIDDLE strand on the tree.  Ugh.  I put it off for a week, but today I decided I couldn't take it any more.  I had to undecorate the middle of the tree, and then try to get the lights "fit" between the two strands.  It doesn't look as nice as I think it looked before, but it's done.  Ah the joys...just in case put the lights on was so much fun that once was enough, I got to do it again!

Half-way through December but done for the year

With today being the 15th, it is essentially 1/2 way through the month.  However, I am finished with work until January 3!  Public schools here go until Friday, but my school's last day is tomorrow.  However, I am taking my grandmother to a doctor appointment in the middle of the day, so I had asked if I could be off for the entire day.  Also, I only work a few hours on Wednesday, at least for right now, so when I left shortly after 11AM this morning, I was finished for the year.  I'll still need to get some payrolls processed and progress reports edited, but I can do that (in some cases from home) on my own schedule.  It is delightful, and I'm grateful!

The last first meet of the season

This evening was the first swim meet of the high school season.  Swim has been a challenge for Thomas this year for a variety of reasons, and in fact we weren't sure he was going to want to swim this season.  We were okay with that, but the coach talked him back in doing swim.  Thomas decided to add dive, but he isn't successful enough to actually compete as a diver yet.  He swam in four events, and did not come in last in his individual events, so that is progress.

This is our eighth season of winter swim/dive, and this is the last season in this house.  Hard to believe!

Saturday morning

Today is the morning we wake up to news of a tornado destroying a factory in Kentucky, leading to dozens of deaths, as well as deaths from a tornado at an Arkansas Amazon warehouse and a Missouri nursing home.  It's two weeks before Christmas.  It shouldn't be this way.

I'm trying to bring the peace back into my heart, and I'm sitting in our living room with the TV fireplace playing Christmas music.  The trees are lit (I'm in the front room because the lights in the middle of the tree in the back room...ugh!) and I'm enjoying the decorations.  The weather is still dreary, but we have some fun family time planned.  I'm praying for everyone today!

Friday feelings

I love Fridays in December.  Often, there is a good amount of family time and it's a good time to watch Christmas movies.  They are often peaceful.  And of course they are decorated, which makes it lovely.

Today was not peaceful.  As a whole, this week has had some challenges.  Thomas has struggled, and work has been challenging.  Today though, oh it was rough.  The high school had a threat.  Not many details have been released (understandably), but what we do know is that school ended up being released a couple of hours early and all evening events were cancelled.  It took me back to that Friday in 2012 when so many little children were killed at Sandy Hook.  While I knew in my heart it was likely okay, it's beyond unsettling.  It's a little sickening to hear Thomas talk about the "plans" he and his classmates were making in the case of an active shooter.

I had some errands to run, but I just wanted to be home at the end of the day.  I just wanted to hug my family.  And there is a big part of me who wanted to throttle whomever decided it would be "funny" to make the threat.

I started this blog thirteen years ago

 It was thirteen years ago on this date that I started blogging.  My senior was a preschooler.  It's gone by in the blink of an eye.  It feels more poignant this year as the "baby" is a senior.  He'll always be my baby though.  While there are certain things I don't miss about having little kids, I feel more emotional about it here at the holidays.  One never knows how many holidays are left with the kids spending time at home.  I only have six more work days until I get two weeks off (mostly) and I'm looking forward to fun times with my family.  I'm grateful for the thirteen years (and more!) that we've all had together, and I plan to soak up fun times this year!

The music moved me to tears

Ugh...this was supposed to be posted last night.  I am more distracted than I even realize!

Tonight was the final December band concert in our family.  It's often one of my favorite concerts each year, because I especially love the holiday music and my favorite years are the ones where the orchestra is also included.  This year, our band director is also responsible for directing the orchestra.  The final number was Christmas Eve 24/7 Sarajevo, a song made well-known by the Trans Siberian Orchestra.  It was moving, and then about 1/2 way through the back curtain was pulled up and all the instrumentalists joined in.  I was moved to tears.  I was touched visually and audibly.   

An early December weekend

Another weekend is drawing to a close.  It's hard to believe that there is only one more Sunday night where I have to work the next day for all of 2021.  I really don't know where the time has gone.

Overall, it was truly a lovely weekend.  Catherine had a rough week last week, and we loved having her home Friday night.  We loved how her best friend Belle, the daughter of our best friends, helped her to laugh and made her feel better, even if it meant Catherine went back to her apartment yesterday instead of today.  I loved watching a cheesy Christmas movie with our family Friday evening.  We even included Thomas's girlfriend.

My day began early yesterday and was busy, but we got to spend the bulk of the day with our dear friends.  We had not been together to just hang out since JULY!  Four times we had plans that had to be rescheduled, but yesterday it all finally came together!  We hung out at a winery, where I fell in love with their holiday wines!  We spent about nine hours together and loved every minute.  So much catching up, and so much laughter.  While we were gone, Thomas volunteered with a band activity, and then had a pep band scheduled for last evening.  We had found out at the end of the week that our former town was playing our school here in town.  Thomas enjoyed getting to see some familiar faces from long ago.

Today our day began at church, then Andrew had to work at the high school hockey game.  I had a very productive day working on many different things, but it was a fairly peaceful day.  I'm finding so much peace in the view of my family room, with a candle lit that has a wonderful scent, and the view of so many decorations.  I'm truly enjoying the season!

I would have been okay with one-and-done

Last year at this time, I purchased several sets of masks at Old Navy.  I loved the style of the masks, and I was allowing myself to make a splurge by buying Christmas fabrics.  While some of them were solid colors or patterns that could be worn year-round, many of them were clearly Christmas.  As I put them away last year, I remember thinking that I was totally fine if they weren't used again.

Sadly, of course, that is not how it turned out.  The masks came back out this year, and we are wearing them.  While we are all vaccinated, it doesn't mean that people aren't getting sick.  It's sad.

With concerns ramping up again, I'm working on finding peace in my heart and maintaining peace in my heart.  To that end, although I have a very busy day that started way too early, I am enjoying a few moments in front of the the TV fireplace with carols.  It's lovely.

December sure came around quickly

We've arrived at December 1.  Just thirty days remain in this entire year.  Not at all sure how that is even possible.  This is our final December with a kiddo in school.  No more swim, no more band concerts we need to attend after this year.  Wow.

I've had a bit of a work schedule adjustment.  I now only work a few hours on Wednesday mornings.  Now I'm off by 11 each week.  I don't mind having to go in for a few hours and get things done.  Today, I ran several errands after getting off work and I was still home shortly after Noon.  I didn't feel well, so I allowed myself to sleep.  Unfortunately, the headache just won't leave, but hopefully I can get some things done this afternoon at some point.  I have to attend a band even this evening, but am hoping it will only be about an hour.

Thomas should be home within the next twenty minutes.  Having a little bit of extra time with him never makes me sad.  I'm so grateful for the quiet right now, and grateful for some extra time with him!