Present Day

Life has gotten crazy lately. There has been a lot of drama in my family of the health AND relationships variety. A few weeks ago I had a surgical procedure performed on my neck and have had a lot of visits to health professionals besides. A week later baby Jackson and I contracted some yucky flu that clug to us for about a week (and had me hanging over the toilet), which we then lovingly shared with my darling husband, Andrew.

Essentially, I have used up my buffer of posts that I have created, and I've been struggling to make posts by my self-imposed deadline the past 3 weeks whereas I had previously been completing them a week or more in advance. Ordinarily I advertise my posts after they are up so that my facebook friends can click through on a link, but I've been somewhat displeased with the quality level with all the rushing these last 3 posts that I have not wanted to share.

I still have lots to write. I still have the drive to write. But I don't want to write things I'm not proud to share. And the next few weeks are going to be challenging enough for me as it is.

In addition to handling my rambunctious little guy, I've talked my way into borrowing my niece and nephew for a few weeks while their parents sort out their differences. So now I get to temporarily be mom of 3!

My darling niece Alana is 7 and my exceedingly handsome nephew Gage is 10. We are renting a monstrosity of a bunk bed for them for a month and hoping to make use of it as much as possible. The bunk is a loft bed, and the bottom "bunk" sits perpendicular to the top and has wheels on the bottom. It's got several dresser drawers built into the frame. It has a full desk with corkboard. It has a large shelving unit. In short, it's an entire bedroom crammed into one massive and complicated hunk of wood.

And this will be in my living room. Luckily we have a massive living room, with not a lot of furniture in it, so it's doable. But for a couple who hates having too much food cluttering the refrigerator, I just know we are going to be doing some deep breathing in order not to freak out with this bedroom beast suddenly transplanted to where our rocking chair ordinarily resides.

Yet Andrew and I are looking forward to the experience. We don't get much time to exercise our nepotism, so it will be a good way to waste lots of money on someone else's children. No, wait, um....

Their first week here they'll be going to this daycamp, which sounds like a blast! It's called Camp Invention. We are going to send small appliances with them to take apart and make things with them. I wish I could go to this camp, rather than just be the boring old adult who signs all the paperwork!

Another thing is that our apartment complex has just recently begun a community garden, of which I am the treasurer. We'll be starting all of our garden plots over the next couple of weeks, so that will also be taking a great deal of my time and energy. I'm expecting the kids to enjoy it, so let's hope they do!

Believe it or not, but I actually do paid work (as a contract bookkeeper) as well, though probably I will not be doing very much for the next month. Good thing it's all on my own schedule and not on that of my current clients, or else I'd really be struggling.

Overall, I'm not expecting to have lots of time to spare for working on this, and I want to give a lot of face time to Gage and Alana as well as Jackson (and of course, Andrew), so I will be taking a hiatus from the blog for the next few weeks.

In my head I imagine the experience being a lot like the old saying about the two best days in a man's life being the day he buys his boat and the day he sells it. I love these children like my own. They love me, too, but they've never had to live in a home with no television or console games. They will be encouraged to make new friends with kids in the neighborhood. They'll be sent outside to play. They'll have enforced quiet time during Jackson's naps if they don't want to go outside, in which I will probably have them read or do puzzles or play board games in my room with me. Who knows? Maybe they will love it. Maybe they will beg to go home. Either way, I expect to enjoy it when they get here and enjoy it again (only differently) when time comes for them to return to their biological parents.

Until that time (and perhaps a week later, let's be honest), I officially place the blog on hiatus. Thank you to all you wonderful folks who have been regular readers. You totally rock! If this were Roshambeau, Scissors would be quivering in the knees.