The month has flown by. My babies will be eight months in a matter of days. The 6-8 month period is chock-o-block full of learning new skills and becoming complete little individuals. It's been amazing and there's a part of me that feels almost bad for all my friends who had singletons b/c I couldn't image having only one to love. Plus they play with each other, which frees me up a ton.
They crawl towards one another, smiling, several times a day. And randomly something will set one of them off laughing and then the other will join in. And sometimes when one of them bonks their head it makes the other one laugh so there are no tears. It's amazing.
But the craziness is about to hit. August is the gear up month. Septembe is launch time. I love my job. I love what I do. I love what Randy does, but the timing of pulling it all off is insane. This is the fourth night in a row Randy hasn't been home for bedtime b/c of job obligations.
We do a lot of single parenting. It's crazy. It does mean I have a lot of alone time with the girls, but it's sometimes to the point when we are both together, taking care of the girls, we stop, look at one another, and laugh, because it's so nice to have both of us there.
September is full...Sunday and Wednesday we're both busy until 9 or 10 p.m. Monday nights Randy is busy. Thursday nights I'm busy. Fridays will mostly likely be spent at football games. Which leaves Tuesday and Saturday. But often we both have youth events or Badger football games on Saturdays, which leaves us Tuesdays to spend time together. I both love and loathe taht particular aspect of our jobs. In order for us to minister to our parishes we have to be available when they are - after hours. Its worth it, make no mistake, but it will be refreshing when we're no longer in ministry.
For now, we'll survive and thrive. The babies are wonderful. I'm wonderful. Randy's wonderful. Life is wonderful.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
back to work!
and so here I am, halfway through my first day back and I'm enjoying myself. It was very difficult to leave this morning...as I carried Eve to the playpen so I could shower I started crying. And then, as I was saying goodbye and hugged them close I cried again, mostly because I thought about all the smiles that wouldn't be directed at me and wondering what new and amazing things they'll learn to do when I'm no longer there all the time.
But it feels good to be back. And thus far I'm not overwhelmed. I've written down 3-4 projects to get accomplished every day for the nest two weeks and I think I'm actually being realistic, which is great. I've got new things in the works and I'm organizing the old things. This is good.
It also felt good to be able to go into the church and pray for awhile. I know nothing is stopping me from doing this when I'm home, and I do pray at home, but the peaceful that can be achieved in a church in the physical presence of God (the Eucharist in the tabernacle) is much stronger in the church itself, and that's comforting.
The past week Randy was on vacation with me as well, so we took a coupe day trips -one to Milwaukee, where we visited the Milwaukee Public Market, which has marvelous food - our lunch consisted of falafel, fresh-made hummus, peanut-chicken stew, caprese salad in ciabatta bread, homemade vanilla rootbeer and HUGE gingersnap and peanut butter cookies. It was pleasant to walk around in the market, too and the variety of foods available made me glad we lived in Madison, because if we were anywhere close by we'd spend so much money there.
After that we headed down to the waterfront and took in the sights there. Lake Michigan was beautifully blue and the sky was mostly clear, which made for a gorgeous view. After that we drove around the neighborhoods near the shore, looking at the huge, beautigul houses, imagining ourselves living in them before heading over to Marquette University campus and exploring the Saint Joan of Arc chapel. It's an interesting little story, about it was built in the 15th century in France, moved to Long Island in the 1920's and then moved to Marquette in the 1960's for preservation (for the complete history, click HERE) A quote taken from the website: The Chapel is, to our knowledge, the only medieval structure in the entire Western Hemisphere dedicated to its original purpose: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam."
There is a stone inside, against the back wall of the chapel that remains colder than the rest of the stone and is, to this day, unable to be explained. It's (and this could be wrong, forgive my memory) supposedly a stone (poratal) that Saint Joan of Arc herself prayed on regularly during her life (though the chapel itself is not believed to be one she visited). Several scientists over the years have attempted to explain why it remains colder, but so far no plausible explanation has been found. Here's a photo of it.
After we finished our tour we went outside and played in the grass with the girlies. It was wonderful. They are both growing up so fast and have some great (and distinct!) personalities.
We also took a day trip to Wisconsin Dells downtown, to visit the tourist shops and bum around, which we did very well. The rest of vacation we hung around and played video games, played with the girls, cooked for one another and talked a lot. It was relaxed, much needed, and very enjoyable.
Now, however, we're back to the grind of regular life. Which is good, but I shall miss my month. Tonight Randy has choir practice, and I've got loads of things to do, both here at work and home. I find myself looking forward to again having purpose in my life, which I suppose only makes sense.
But it feels good to be back. And thus far I'm not overwhelmed. I've written down 3-4 projects to get accomplished every day for the nest two weeks and I think I'm actually being realistic, which is great. I've got new things in the works and I'm organizing the old things. This is good.
It also felt good to be able to go into the church and pray for awhile. I know nothing is stopping me from doing this when I'm home, and I do pray at home, but the peaceful that can be achieved in a church in the physical presence of God (the Eucharist in the tabernacle) is much stronger in the church itself, and that's comforting.
The past week Randy was on vacation with me as well, so we took a coupe day trips -one to Milwaukee, where we visited the Milwaukee Public Market, which has marvelous food - our lunch consisted of falafel, fresh-made hummus, peanut-chicken stew, caprese salad in ciabatta bread, homemade vanilla rootbeer and HUGE gingersnap and peanut butter cookies. It was pleasant to walk around in the market, too and the variety of foods available made me glad we lived in Madison, because if we were anywhere close by we'd spend so much money there.
After that we headed down to the waterfront and took in the sights there. Lake Michigan was beautifully blue and the sky was mostly clear, which made for a gorgeous view. After that we drove around the neighborhoods near the shore, looking at the huge, beautigul houses, imagining ourselves living in them before heading over to Marquette University campus and exploring the Saint Joan of Arc chapel. It's an interesting little story, about it was built in the 15th century in France, moved to Long Island in the 1920's and then moved to Marquette in the 1960's for preservation (for the complete history, click HERE) A quote taken from the website: The Chapel is, to our knowledge, the only medieval structure in the entire Western Hemisphere dedicated to its original purpose: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam."
There is a stone inside, against the back wall of the chapel that remains colder than the rest of the stone and is, to this day, unable to be explained. It's (and this could be wrong, forgive my memory) supposedly a stone (poratal) that Saint Joan of Arc herself prayed on regularly during her life (though the chapel itself is not believed to be one she visited). Several scientists over the years have attempted to explain why it remains colder, but so far no plausible explanation has been found. Here's a photo of it.
After we finished our tour we went outside and played in the grass with the girlies. It was wonderful. They are both growing up so fast and have some great (and distinct!) personalities.
We also took a day trip to Wisconsin Dells downtown, to visit the tourist shops and bum around, which we did very well. The rest of vacation we hung around and played video games, played with the girls, cooked for one another and talked a lot. It was relaxed, much needed, and very enjoyable.
Now, however, we're back to the grind of regular life. Which is good, but I shall miss my month. Tonight Randy has choir practice, and I've got loads of things to do, both here at work and home. I find myself looking forward to again having purpose in my life, which I suppose only makes sense.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)