Still finding my rhythm

I'm still adjusting to life as an employed stay-at-home mother. I suspect my adjustment will continue for a long while.

I enjoyed mothering all the kids while they were here. And now I am enjoying the last couple of weeks with Amanda before she goes back to school on the 25th.

I had a stretch of 12-hour days with nine projects due in the last two weeks of July, and now I am coming off seven days of no work. Yesterday I was given three projects, all due on Wednesday. More will come.

We've been doing SO much driving. We rented a Grand Caravan for the trip to Little Rock, and turned it in having driven 2,099 miles in five days. While the kids were here we made day trips to Greensboro, NC; Virginia Beach; Lexington, VA; and Natural Bridge, VA (sometimes in two cars).

This past Tuesday we drove to Charlottesville to meet the very fine Ms. Chapin. She says we cooked dinner for her. The truth is, we took her to a fondue restaurant.

We're not done traveling. My paternal family reunion is tomorrow in PA. We're driving up early in the morning for the afternoon picnic. Afterward we'll head over to BFF Tina's for Karaoke night at Johnny Angels.

Tonight for date night we are going to the Pittsylvania County rodeo.


Court and I had an anniversary on Sunday, while we were in Little Rock. It seems impossible that she and I have been together only four years. We fit like time-tested precision, well beyond our years as a couple. Nevertheless, it was just four years ago, on Aug 3, that I drove to Little Rock to move her to Radford, VA for graduate school. That was also our first face-to-face meeting.

Yes, Court and I started out as an Internet romance.

So. Tawdry.

Our first year was rocky. I was still smarting from my divorce. I was broke and demoralized. And I wasn't out to anyone that mattered. The first night she was in my home, I looked at her and said to myself, "She's going to break my heart."

She hasn't.

Ever.

Near the end of our first year I panicked. I had doubts. I suddenly felt like life with her was not what I wanted. And I told her so. It was honest, it was the right thing to do, but it was a brutal blow to her. The woman NEVER wavered. And she impressed me. My panicking wasn't an attempt to test her, but in that crisis, she proved herself a keeper.

I've not doubted since.


I have to be the luckiest, and happiest, woman alive right now.