Report from the Homefront

I feel like a do a pretty good job of telling it like it is around here. When we struggle, I share. When we fall short, I share. When we face challenges, I share. So it seems only fitting that when we are in a season of great joy, I share that, too.

(ahem)

(yells into megaphone)

WE ARE IN A SEASON OF GREAT JOY!

I don’t really know what it is about this period in time for our family, but we are just having a lot of fun with each other right now. Maybe it’s the stress of both mine and Chris’s jobs being so up-in-the-air for a while and now that they have both settled down, we are able to finally breathe and sleep easy again.

Maybe it’s the age of the kids. 8 and 10 is pretty awesome. Their personalities are exploding. They are ridiculously funny and, more often than not, they get along really well. They are independent, but still so very loving and snuggly. They are smart, but still so very goofy and clumsy. They are kind, but so very real and bitingly sarcastic at times.

Maybe it’s that we get to do so much more now. They can sit through movies. They can stay up late. Movie nights actually have good movies now. We take bike rides for miles after dinner. We play actual fun card games. They travel just as well as they sit around on their rear-ends playing video games.

Maybe it’s because summer is just around the corner and we can all feel the anticipation of looser schedules and later bedtimes and poolside afternoons. Summer will be different for us this year because of my travel schedule, but the kids are signed up for a few summer camps and a few fun long weekends with grandparents, so I know they are going to have a blast, too.

But my favorite part of being together as a family in this stage right now is that they talk to us. They tell us about their days, about their friendships, about their schoolwork, about their worries, about their challenges, about their successes, and (reluctantly) about their failures. And Chris and I share a lot of our lives with the kids, too. When we are working on something particularly challenging in our work lives, we share that with the kids at the dinner table. When we someone is extra kind to us (or not kind to us), we share that with them, too. When our feelings get hurt or our stress levels are high, we talk about it (age appropriately) with them, too.

So, I’m not really sure what the deal is right now or why we are experiencing such a joyous time with our family, but I don’t question it at all. What’s that saying? The days are long, but the years are short?

Yeah. That.