I'm Back

Hello, friends!  I am back!  (Well, I am back for now.  Back for good?  I'll work on it.)

In the past week(s), here are a few things you have missed:

1.) Adam and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary.  Sixth.  Wedding anniversary.  And do you know what is awesome about that?  Spending six years with the best friend/most competent and compatible/wonderful person I have yet to meet.  Every year, I get to reflect on how imperative Adam is to this family and recently, as we are growing out of a very long baby stage in our house, Adam and I have really learned to appreciate each other and the time we spend together.  Adam is a magic-maker.  Always has been, always will be.  This year's anniversary included:

-Chocolates
-Pearls (!)
-Dinner at Recess
-Drinks at Twenty Tap
-Love, love, lovelovelove (and appreciation, which, at this point in our lives, goes a very long way.) 

Adam is good people.  These boys and I are really very lucky, and that is the truth.

2.) Thanksgiving was a success.  That was, until Ariane made pitchers of margaritas that included more tequila than I believe the recipe called for, and I was asleep before ten.  Or nine.  Whatever.  However, it was an awesome holiday with awesome family (and my little sister did her very first Thanksgiving meal, beating me to that milestone by a longshot.  Show-off.)

3.) Otto (our Scout Elf) made a return visit!  This means little to you, I'm sure, but I know three little boys who are incredibly excited about it.

4.) Boy updates:

Patrick is doing really well in school.  He wants to badly to be grown, and it shows.  I register him for kindergarten soon, and it doesn't seem possible.  Little Pjew is fantastic (and smart...and a good little artist, it turns out.)

Leo is wild.  Huge surprise there.  However, he's so loving and affectionate that it's hard to stay mad at him.  Even when he knocks himself out cold on a doorframe (happened) or almost shoves his top teeth through his chin in a nasty fall (also happened) or throws incredibly large objects with his toddler Hulk-like strength (a ladder).  Eesh.  However, he's taking to potty training pretty well, which gives me hope that he's at least capable of being civilized and not completely feral.

Hatch.  At fourteen months today (what??), he is almost running, short and stout, with a contagious little laughter and a genuine little smile.  While we used to joke about how scrappy he is, we were right.  Out of all three of the boys he is the only one who, when charged, will dig in his heels, tuck in his chin, and brace himself for a tackle rather than turn the other way and run.  I thought today about the man who predicted Hatch's sex and his personality (and size, which has so far turned out to be wrong.)  However, he said once that he would have a big presence...and he does.  Perhaps it is in the eyes, but I think of my dad when I look at Hatch.  Very likable, not very tall, and a little fierce and intimidating.  Still, Hatch is my little lover-baby, and when he rubs his cheek against mine and says, "Mommy," I can't help but to breathe him in .  He's so loved. 

They all are, and this time of year is especially fun around here.  Between the tree and the lights and the ornaments and the smells and the Christmas lists and Otto and Gingerbread houses (one under construction currently), there are a lot of festivities here.  Adam and I are blessed.  Whether we always realize it, we are.  (I could use snow.  And a little cold weather.  Just saying.)

Which brings me to my next point.  The last few weeks, I haven't blogged much because I really didn't feel like I had anything good to say.  I felt a lot of pressure between the new job, my own (sometimes debilitating) self-criticism, personal family issues, etc. that I wasn't sure how to recount a story and make light of it.  I just couldn't see the big picture, and I'm sorry about that.  I like to fix problems by talking them to death, but when it stings too much to verbalize how I feel, I struggle with resolution.  However, I'm working through it.  I am sometimes my own worst enemy in terms of over-analyzing, reliving the past, doubting even my own intentions.  I can certainly own that much.  (The job, by the way, kicks ass.  No really.  In every sense.  It's as awesome and rewarding as much as it is physically and mentally tough.  It kicks my ass, at least.) 

This time of year is great for cleansing the mind, I think.  It's great to put things back into perspective.  While I am a couple of weeks late, It should be still appropriate to be thankful for the things I have: job, husband, kids, sister(!), parents, in-laws, intentions, thoughts, loves, memories, fights, internal battles, coffee mugs, lipstick (some things are essential), tastes, habits, interests...life.  I have a good life. 

It's true.