Changes

Holy moly, it has been a LONG time since I posted here, but I've been feeling that I should get back into writing.  I debated on starting a whole new blog, since I haven't been "mommy" in quite a few years, but I didn't want to lose the old posts or the perspective, so I am going to keep this one, possibly with a name change.  

My kids are now tweens and teens, with the twins in middle school and Gabe in high school. 😲 They are growing like weeds and eating us out of house and home.  I am currently at the library printing a bunch of new budget-friendly freezer and slow cooker recipes.  With all the kids' activities, I'm pretty much an unpaid taxi driver these days, so recipes that can just be tossed into the slow cooker or oven are a must, and they need to feed an army.  When the boys were little, I half-joked that I would need to save up for groceries instead of college when they were teens, and I was right.  Good lands those boys can eat!  I wasn't anticipating all the other expenses of arts fees and sports fees and concert outfits and camps and youth conferences and everything though.  Not to mention we'll have a teen driver in the house soon.

As the boys grow, their problems and emotions and stresses get bigger, so parenting is much harder mentally and emotionally, but their growth is so fun to experience.  The tween years have been the roughest so far for all of them, with the teen years for Gabe being a little easier in many ways and harder in others (technology is going to be the death of me!).  The maturity and empathy they develop is incredible to watch.  It's also fun to be able to share books and movies and TV shows that aren't always meant for kids.  Now that Gabe has a phone, we communicate a lot in memes and funny blog posts/articles, which is so much fun.    For those dreading the teen years, know that there are so many blessings that come with the challenges and make it totally worth it.

As for me, I'm still at the same hospital I started at in 2017 and am still pretty happy there.  It was a stressful transition due to some bullying by senior staff that led to a unit transfer on my part, but it was still exactly where I needed to be during one of the most difficult seasons of my personal life, and it continues to be a blessing.  My DH is still doing the same type of work, but at a different place, and he loves his new employer.  We still work opposite shifts, even though we no longer need babysitters, but we see each other a little more with my on 12's and him on 8's.

One of the biggest blessings of the past few years has been my small group.  We are still at the same church (though it merged with our previous church), but our small groups had disbanded.  A few years ago, a friend invited me to visit her women's small group.  About half the group I was already pretty familiar with, but the other half I barely knew at all.  I wasn't sure about it until they volunteered to serve at a funeral dinner that I had also signed up for, and we all hit it off.  Since then, they have become my people.  I have no idea how I functioned without them, but I never want to do it again.  As a natural introvert, I had no idea how badly I needed a tribe until I found one.  Like Paul said in Philippians, I thank God every time I think of what they mean to me.  We were created for community, and I have finally found mine.