Returning to your regularly scheduled programming...

For the moment, the house is still.  One boy is napping, the other reading.  The husband puttering on the computer upstairs.  Dishwasher and clothes washer are both humming along, and here I sit on the couch, trying to catch my breath.

Like all of you, our Christmas season was full.  Full of joy, full of rich and sugary foods, full of noise. We were very blessed this season to spend time with both sides of our family, and to visit with cousins and aunt and uncles seen far too rarely. There was the whole "over the river and through the woods" element, snowmen, and cousin squabbles (among the littles, not the grown-ups). Generosity abounded both in material gifts and those of gentle kindnesses. And there was a hole where those we miss were felt deeply.

And now for "re-entry" to our normal lives. We go back to work tomorrow, and the boys return to school on Tuesday.  Swimming lessons begin tomorrow night again, along with staff meetings and site council. Early mornings in the cold and dark are the hardest for me to adjust to, and my brain isn't yet clicking along with lesson plans. And there are a few big decisions on the near horizon.  The first is figuring out where our oldest will be attending first grade.  The second is taking a look at my work situation and figuring out what (if any) flexibility might be there for next year. Most likely, those choices need to be made by the beginning of March, and require some heavy research and soul searching.

With those choices come opportunities.  They are chances to refine our goals as a family and make sure that we are living in a way that helps us attain them.  We need it figure out what is not only sustainable for our family, but what pushes us to growth.  It's a tall order, and like everything else I do, I'm sure I'm over thinking it.

But away we go....