The Days are Long, but the Years are Short

I love this picture so much.  I caught it while we were walking home from a short little walk.  The girls were so excited to be out on a walk (it's hot here and I never do it) that they were holding hands and playing together.  You can see our house in the background.  It represents so much of what life is to me right now.

I feel like I am finally understanding what it means to enjoy parenthood.  Don't get me wrong, I've always loved my kids, and there have always been wonderful moments that are fun and sweet, but now I feel like I get it.  There are hard days.  Very hard days.  Days where I go and lock myself in my room and then lock myself in a closet to get a moments peace (or maybe just a chance to eat a sandwich) (and yes, that's two locked doors between me and my darling girls), but there are also days when Lucy climbs into my lap and points at my fingers and says "Fingernails!"  Or when Clara snuggles in next to me and says, "I love you, Mommy."  Or when the first thing Lucy says when she wakes up from her nap is, "Where Cwara?"  Or when Clara, upon witnessing Lucy having a meldown in the car, says "Lucy!  Lucy!  Lucy!  It's ok, see?  We can have fun!  Look at this big hill we're going down!  Wee!"  And then they both proceed to giggle to each other in the car.  Having two toddler girls is so trying at times, but so perfectly pristine in other moments.  Truly, there is nothing more meaningful as a parent than watching your children become best friends.

The days are long, but the years are short.

Preschool for All!

My mom bugged me this weekend and told me I needed to update my blog.  She's probably right... we're so busy these days!  I have missed being busy.  It feels good to wake up each day and to have places to go and things to accomplish!

This year we're doing preschool in a big way.  I haven't done it before, but this year Clara has been dying to go to school I decided to dig in and make it happen.  I found this little preschool run out of a home that was relatively inexpensive (side note: the price of preschool in North Phoenix is ASTRONOMICAL) and close to our house.  Two days a week, 9am-11:30am.  Perfect!

At about the same time, I got an email from a friend who wanted to do a little co/op for her 2 year old, and was wondering if Lucy would join.  I wouldn't have ever considered preschool for Lucy (who won't be two until September 19th) (also, see "astronomical price of preschool"), but it was free AND it was happening at the exact same time as Clara's preschool.  Tuesday/Thursday from 9:15-11:15.  Hello, who am I to turn down such a lovely opportunity?  So, we went from no preschool, to everyone is in preschool!  Including mom about 1/3 of the time as a teacher/helper in the school for Lucy.

This was our first full week and it went so well!  Both girls enjoy their preschools, and not only do they have corresponding preschool days/times, we also have a friend who lives around the corner who's girls are the same ages and are both doing the same preschool!  This means one of us drops the older kids off and the other drops the younger kids off.  Really, I couldn't have coordinated this better if I planned it, it's clearly just meant to be.  Because of my schedule and a couple of ladies having babies this month, I'm doing most of my helping/teaching days for Lucy's preschool this month.  So no free time for me quite yet, but after this month the rest of the year should be lovely!

This year is the first time since I've had Clara that I haven't been "in charge" of our schedule.  In the past, I have been able to choose what we do and when, because we almost never had any commitments.  I have mixed feeling on the changes.  It took me a couple of years to adjust to being a free agent all the time with the kids, but over the last year it's been so nice to basically do whatever we want.  I will miss that freedom.  But I'm excited for the purpose and structure that school will give our weeks.  I love that we're starting out slow, we still have Monday/Wednesdays/Fridays entirely to ourselves to do as we please.  I really love our new schedule!

Lucy at Preschool the first day I was a helper

A Things-Have-Been-Going-Really-Well Blog Post

So I've wanted to write this post for a couple of months now, but I have been afraid it would come off as bragging.  But I have written about the challenging times our family has faced, and I feel I would be ungrateful (and a little bit of a liar) if I didn't mention when things seem to be going really well for us.  It's times like these that I actually start to almost worry, because things are TOO good.  I start to realize my time is at hand for a big trial and I make it a point to say extra prayers of gratitude, hoping maybe being super, extra grateful will mean difficult times will never come our way.  Of course, that's not how it works, and life has an ebb of flow of good times and more difficult times, and I just want to be sure I'm on record of appreciating when life is really great.

Jordan has been doing extremely well at work.  He recently took his career to the next level and is a certified ASA, which basically means he's a credentialed actuary.  He still has a couple more exams and some classes to take before he's a fully credentialed FSA, but we've been working towards the ASA for a long time, and it's very satisfying to have reached it.  He put in long hours of study (in addition to long hours at work) and just really worked his tail off, and I couldn't be prouder of him.  In terms of his career, we are in a very advantageous position.  If we wanted, we could get  a different job fairly easily.  His skills are highly marketable and we have excellent job security.  He has also made a great impression on his currently boss and they have made it clear that they value the good work Jordan does.  Even though Phoenix isn't my favorite place in the whole world, we find that we are comfortable staying a few more years.

Speaking of Phoenix, we are feeling more and more comfortable here.  I still don't love the heat or the landscape, but there are a whole bunch of different reasons to love it here.  I love all the things there are to do with little kids.  Having a second vehicle and Lucy dropping her morning nap have finally created great conditions for us to explore all the cool stuff for kids. I also feel like I'm making good friends and it's starting to feel more like home.

The kids ARE a challenge.  As my father in law said, they are at ages where they are "sucking vortexes of need." Ha.  I'm actually really happy he said it, because it makes me feel less crazy.  There's a reason I hit burnout!  Anyway, I have two toddlers and they are a lot of work.  But they are a lot of fun.  Clara is talking so well and keeps us well informed with what's going on.  Lucy is starting to talk, and she's so cute I could die.  They play reasonably well together and they seem to really like each other.  Every day is a new challenge, but it's kind of exciting.

When life is going well, I really feel it's important to acknowledge it and appreciate it.  I feel like I've been tasting the sweetness of life, and I really am beyond grateful.

A Grownup Vacation

Jordan and I went to Mexico last week, and it was amazing.  The trip itself was fun and beautiful and relaxing, all really important components to an excellent vacation.  We took a 7 day cruise out of Long Beach (we chose this specific cruise because it ports out of Long Beach and we can just drive over there from Phoenix), with two days in Puerto Vallarta and one day in Cabo.  We decided to get a room with a balcony and it was worth every single extra penny.  We would open our balcony at night and listen to the ocean, or we'd go out there and watch for whales as the sun set.

It was a really nice mix of "doing" and "not doing."  We went to the family friendly comedy shows, the love and marriage game, and a couple of other shows that were entertaining (especially from the perspective of a couple of people who do not really go to shows very often), or we'd sit in our room and read or watch TV.  We were both nervous not to be able to log onto the internet for the whole week (because the internet costs a freakin' arm and a leg!), but it was really a relief.  Jordan couldn't check into work.

Our big excursion was to go whale watching and snorkeling in Puerto Vallarta.  It was so so cool.  We did see a whale, and we watched a baby whale jump up and breach over and over and over again.  The baby whale (who was probably playing) jumped out of the water again and again for at least 15 minutes, and was still going when we left the scene.  The mother whale would come up for air close by, keeping close tabs on the little one.  It was so amazing.  We saw tons of fish while snorkeling, although we didn't stay in the water as long as we would have wanted.  After that, we were able to kayak a bit and see some cool birds.

While our vacation was really spectacular, what has been most amazing to me is how much better I feel now that I'm home.  I knew I was starting to wear thin and that my levels of patience were dropping dramatically, but I didn't realize how taking a week long break would really just totally rejuvenate me.  I have now learned my lesson.  Sometimes mom's need breaks, and that's ok.  Jordan and I aren't going to be able to take week long vacations every single year, but we might be able to go away for a weekend annually.