Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

I can't believe it's been months (with an s!) since I've last written a blog post. Actually, I take that back. I can believe it's been months...between work, playing extreme-mommy taxi, and preserving the bounty of our monstrously large garden, it's a small miracle that I'm sitting here right now spinning yarns. Then again, it's very possible that I'm writing a post because I'm avoiding at least one of the above tasks. Not to mention working out. I'm avoiding that too. 

There have been a lot of big changes in our family since the last time I wrote.  Here are some of the highlights:

Tim started a new job and as much as I enjoyed the irony of my Buddhist-leaning husband working for a Catholic-leaning shrine, he's now a hotshot at Providence as a Volunteer Coordinator for their Hospice program. He has not one, but two offices in the region....one that I wish he would consider giving to me because my office at work is actually a short glorified hallway that I share with one other person and sees more foot traffic on a daily basis than a box store on Black Friday....but I regress.

 

There are two things that I find slightly disturbing about Tim's new position...one are the 'dongs' that chime on his work phone to signal that one of the patients has died, and the other is that the crazy family morning routine now falls solely on my shoulders and requires me to get both my son and me up and out the door in the morning. Given that I am about the worst morning person that you will ever meet, this isn't going to play in anyone's favor. God only knows what I pack that poor kid for lunch in the morning with one eye open and zero caffeine in my system. It's not out of the realm of possibility that I've packed him a sandwich and a sock and sent him on his way. But I'm giving it the 'ole team try. 

 

Sydney has started her sophomore year in high school. She was also accepted to the The School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, which is recognized as one of the premiere professional ballet schools in the country. We are ridiculously proud of her as she is thriving in both environments, but I have to say, between school and dance, her homework and her social life, the probability of seeing Sydney for more than a few minutes on any given day is about equal to stumbling upon a Sasquatch in the wild. 

Alex started middle school and was excited about the new adventure for all of 30 seconds before he realized that although it involved a new building in a different part of town, it still was actually school and he's been feeling slighted ever since. Last year's announcement of being "in the puberty" has become more apparent as he's become slightly surly and the eye-rolling has gone up by a factor of ten. Oh, puberty...ready or not, here we come. Please be gentle with us. There are some glimmers of hope under the growing testosterone....he announced that he has joined the Gay and Straight Alliance at school because he "feels a responsibility to protect people and make them feel welcome." Makes me tear up to even see that in writing. 

So the world is turning and life is unfolding only slightly slower than the speed of sound. I'd like to think that I'm keeping all of the balls in the air, hoping to make all the simultaneous transitions semi-smooth for all of the players involved. Making sure that the day to day family business is, if not a fine-oiled machine, at least not a complete train wreck. I'm taking it one breath at a time.