At this time five years ago my mom was losing her battle with cancer and Paul was finishing his third and final year as a chemistry professor. So much has changed over the past five years. My mom and brother passed away, I went back to work FT for two years, and Paul transitioned from Bucknell back to Kennedy Concrete. It was a huge change for our family because he went from going to work 3 days a week to going to work 6 days a week. He also works far more weeks of the year and is away from home for far more hours each day. There are still times when he goes into work extremely early, but in general he doesn't go in to work now as early as he did in 2016. He still usually leaves before any of us are awake. The time he typically gets home has moved to a later time over these five years. He typically comes home between 8-9pm Monday through Friday. He comes home earlier than that on Saturdays. Most weeks we barely see him M-F. We see him the most on Sundays. Usually we get a few hours with him on Saturday. This past Saturday he went to bed after dinner and slept for almost 12 hours so we only were with him for about one hour on Saturday.
The good news is that we've gotten adjusted to not seeing him very much. It was hard in the beginning, but over the years we have become accustomed to the new normal. Sometimes Nadia gets frustrated that we schedule family outings on Sundays if it means she has to miss the evening youth group and/ or we attend church online instead of in person because of the day trip. Similarly, although I still miss my mom and brother, I've gotten accustomed to not being able to talk to them or give them a hug. Recently Oliver and I saw a bird I don't believe I've ever seen before. I'm sure Maurice would have been able to identify it. I *think* it was a ruffed grouse. The bird was sitting on a nest built on some rocks. The eggs were also beautiful and different than the eggs I usually see in nests around here. Five years ago Paul discovered a problem with our shower. He worked on it from time to time for 4.5 years and then we hired a handyman to finish the project. Paul said in January that he didn't consider it to be quite done, but I decided a couple of weeks ago to finally resume using my shower.
Five years ago we didn't have any pets. In December 2016 we got our first two pets - two guinea pigs. One of those guinea pigs is still with us. In 2020 we had two rabbits for two months, got two more guinea pigs, had two fish for five months, and got our first dog. For the past almost thirteen years, it has been very rare for me to be able to sleep until 7:30am. I've never been one to sleep in really late - not even when I was a teenager, but prior to becoming a mom, I used to sleep until 7:30 sometimes. Ian has very recently started sleeping in a bit later, and Milo has been willing to patiently wait in his crate in Ian's bedroom. I am very, very grateful to have the opportunity to sleep until 7:30 from time to time! A sober thought to me is that in five years Nadia will be graduating from high school. EEK! That probably seems far away to her, but it seems to be just around the corner to me. I hope we make many precious memories over the coming five years. I booked our very first white water rafting adventure yesterday which will be part of her 13th birthday celebration. I'm very thankful for the many hours I get to spend with my three children.
No comments:
Post a Comment