Where I'm At

I have really been struggling lately, in all areas of my life.  I find myself composing lengthy blog posts in my head but then can't make myself write them down.  There is so much that I want to say and yet I'm not sure I really want to say it.  One day I do hope to turn my writings into a book and I know that I will want to remember the good and the bad and just how hard and beautiful and scary life can be sometimes.  I'm working on it.  Working on being honest, yet staying positive.

We just returned from a trip to visit family for Thanksgiving and I'm still working on unpacking all of the literal and figurative baggage that comes along with it.

And so here I am... a challenging week that began with Seven's second birthday and culminated in our 9-foot Christmas tree crashing to the floor in a violent shattering of glass this morning.  One cup of coffee into the day and I am ready to crawl back in bed.  I'm feeling both grateful and disappointed today and that's such a weird place to be sometimes.

The big kids came down with a very minor sore throat this week and I could feel pressure building in my "good" ear.  The pain grew until my eardrum finally ruptured two nights ago.  In a rare care of prefect timing, I had my surgical consult with the ENT the following morning to discuss the plan for my other ear and repairing that hole.  It seems quite certain that my dizziness has all been from permanent damage to my inner ear.  Now that my other eardrum has a hole too, I am actually pain-free and less dizzy.  I can't help but be thankful that none of my children have ever had an ear infection.  (Breastfeeding FTW!)

I let myself get behind in school this semester and then stupidly planned to get caught up when we were back in northern VA for Thanksgiving.  Of course I didn't even open my books and now I'm completely overwhelmed at the amount of work left before me and the short numbers of days left until the semester ends.

Seven turned two on Sunday and I have so much to say about that but she really deserves her own blog post.  She is a pretty awesome little girl.

Violet turned 3 months old on Monday and I'm still amazed.  She is the most laid back baby and is just completely content.  I whisper in her ear and tell her that she's perfect.  It's true.

I realized that I never shared the beautiful photos that my friend at Blue Sky Photography took after Violet was born.  So here are a few shots of my sweet Violet...