The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good of 2010:

Niall's so adorable, and so sweet, funny, and good-natured. It's wonderful seeing my bigger kids take care of their baby brother.

Colwyn has gotten into Harry Potter big time, and I love being able to share that with him.

The kids' birthday parties were all very successful.

Doug still has a job.

My immediate family (me, Doug, and the kids) are healthy.

The Bad of 2010:

My grandmother passed away right after Thanksgiving. We were close, she was a strong, steady presence in my life (she often lived with us). I always looked to her for advice on food, gardening, crafting. Her illness itself was traumatic, and we just miss her so much.

My mother's poor health has continued all year. At the beginning of 2010, we thought she'd be turning a corner soon. Her health still sucks, which severely exacerbates our personal conflicts.

We've been fighting an unfair foreclosure since early March. We've been unsure of where we'd be living in a month.. for ten months.

Due to several families' circumstances, our homeschool group has had a big drop-off in attendance.. and we've been struggling with feeling socially isolated all year.

Niall's birth was difficult and disappointing. I know this sounds petty, but it still weighs on me. The stress of our breastfeeding issues, giving up after a few months, the guilt, and the sadness that I'll never nurse another baby.

The unending sleep deprivation. For over four months now, Niall has woken up on average once every hour, all night long. I'm so, so tired.

My cousin was born with major health issues, mainly due to his mother's behavior while pregnant.

The Ugly of 2010:

Me. To cope with all this, I've been eating. I don't know how much I've gained, as the scale needs new batteries. I'm dreading weighing myself.

In short, 2010 has sucked. 2011 will be better.

New Year's Resolutions

Resolution #1 - Lose weight. I don't want to die.

Resolution #2 - Blog more. My memory is shot with sleep deprivation and 4 kids.. I don't want to forget my kids' childhoods.

Resolution #3 - Find more energy for my husband (getting Niall to sleep better would really help with this).

About Me

Back when my husband and I were first starting out, I never would have guessed that this is where we'd be now. Homebirthing, homeschooling, baby-wearing, chicken owning, (sub)urban homesteading parents of four kids. Life is funny.

My husband, Doug and I met online in February of 1996, when I was 15 and he was 17. He was living 1400 miles away, so we didn't meet in person until later that summer, after our birthdays. We've been madly in love ever since.

Now we live in suburban Massachusetts, in the same house where we had our first kiss, where we got married, where two of our children were born. He's an IT manager in Boston and I stay home with the kiddos. My life revolves around my family, so that's a lot of what's in this blog. But I'm also more than 100 pounds overweight and trying to get healthy, so that'll be part of things, too. And because we're learning-as-we-go urban homesteaders, I'll write about those adventures as well.