January

I have wanted to be outside more recently, so I started taking my kids on little adventures whenever we didn't have other obligations. My birthday was early in the month, and I wanted to go to the beach. The beach in our part of the world in January requires boots, heavy coats, and gloves. It was a beautiful day. We went to Point No Point first and walked around a bit, but I decided I needed more, so then we went to Foulweather Bluff.

I always hope to see orcas when I'm near the water. This day we saw seals, birds, and I found a piece of seaglass in the shape of a heart. 

A few days later, I took the kids to Fort Flagler. Sean had been there years before on a scout trip, but it was Matthew and my first time. There were several ammunition storage places we could wander through and some other gun placements. I think that's what they're called. 

There were some paths to the beach, so we went to check stuff out. 

We took one more side trip to a smaller state park and just walked down the dock for a minute.

The boys and I flew to Las Vegas to visit my brother and his family. We had a nice few days in the desert. A change of scenery is a good idea in the winter. 

We found a giant pineapple.

I wanted to see the Hoover Dam this trip since I hadn't been there before. It's pretty impressive. We first stopped at the new highway so we could see the dam in all it's glory. The highway is so, so high up. Yikes! It was very cool to see everything though and walk around.

From the dam, looking at the new road.

After the dam, we went for a hike closeby. It was really beautiful. We did not do the full trail because we started later in the day. There are 6 sections of the trail where we need to use ropes to get down the rocks. We only made it to the 2nd ropes part and turned back. The kids were tired! It was a great day!

Our last day in Vegas, we went to Container Park in the older part of town. It was really fun to run around and show the kids an area they hadn't been before.

We did some more outdoor adventuring when we got home. This time we went to Scenic Beach in Seabeck. I've been trying to provide places where the kids can climb and take some calculated risks to increase their skills and develop some more confidence in themselves. This place was great for that kind of thing!

And there were lots of interesting textures and patterns for me to admire.

A moment of brotherly bonding while quietly observing a squirrel. 

I took the kids to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. It's quite the museum! I think the kids liked going inside the planes the best. It was a fun day!

That was our January. I hope yours was a pleasant one also. 

December happened

Matthew turned 10!! He is a delightful person and I'm glad he's mine. We celebrated him with the traditional pancakes. We went to a very cold park. He wanted a donut for his "cake." His Poppa brought him his favorite lemon meringue pie ice cream. We went roller skating with a couple of friends. It was a great few days of fun. 

On one of my trips to Joann's Fabrics, I saw some really cute fabric and I took the kids to choose their favorite. I made Matthew a pillow case out of some Minecraft fabric. I made pajamas for Sean from some Star Wars Christmasy fabric.

The boys and I headed to Oregon to spend a few days with Adam and my grandpa so my mom could visit Amy. Adam's dog, Lobo, was so patient with Matthew. 

The boys decorated gingerbread houses. It was stressful. There were some sad moments when things weren't going according to plan. But they persevered and eventually everything was consumed and I told the kids that next year we can decorate cookies!

Sean had his Winter Orchestra performance. He did a great job. 

I took the boys and their cousin, Sophia, to a car museum in Tacoma. It was really cool and the kids had fun in the basement doing a racetrack simulator. 

The boys and I took Jon's ashes to Silverdale Waterfront and put them in the water from the dock. I had been thinking about it for a few months, and it felt like the right thing to do.

It look a long time for them to sink. It was interesting watching for a bit. 

There were seagulls flying above us when we released Jon's ashes. I don't know if they were hoping for snacks or what, but we were also making sure to not get pooped on!

The boys and I went on a nature walk and gathered supplies for our Solstice candles. Dinner was delicious. Matt was in town and Greta came for the weekend too. We played games and did some crafts and hung out in our pajamas. It was all so lovely.

Christmas afternoon, we went to see Amy's family. I had made cinnamon rolls because Jose loves them. We played games and ate and had a nice time. 

Hardcore Minecraft going on!

We hung out with their family for a few days before heading home for New Years Eve. It was another low-key day. We drank some sparkling cider and watched a show. I let the boys play video games while I fell asleep early. I woke up at midnight and we listened to fireworks for a bit and then shut down the house for the night. 

Here's to a beautiful 2019!

Tooting My Own Horn

I probably should also write about some of the good things that have happened recently, so it doesn't seem like I wallow in awfulness all the time. I'm getting more adept at taking a deep breath and figuring out how to do things. You know how in marriages, there is often a division of labor? One partner sets up anything electronic, one does yard maintenance, both share in laundry, one takes out the trash, etc. Well, I have had to figure out how to do tasks that usually fell to Jon.

One of the first big things that happened was my car windshield was completely smashed driving on the freeway one day. We were on our way home from a weekend in Oregon and were less than 10 minutes from home when something (it looked like a rubber brick. I have no idea what it actually was) flew up and smashed the passenger side of my windshield. It startled me and the boys a lot! It was raining really heavily and I didn't really feel like stopping on the side of the highway, so I asked the kids if they were ok. They said "yes" and we made it home safely. We unpacked the car and I just sat on the couch coming off the adrenaline rushing through my body. I knew I needed to call the insurance company to figure out how to get the windshield repaired, but I needed a few minutes to calm down. This was something I would have asked Jon to do. Not because I'm not capable, but because the division of labor in our marriage dictated that he handled car stuff. Deep breaths, Betsy. You can do this! I was so happy to find out that I didn't have to take the car anywhere to have the windshield replaced. They sent someone to my house the next day to replace it in my garage. It was so convenient for me. When it was done, I found out that the guy didn't put the windshield wipers back properly, so with several Facetime calls with a mechanic friend, I was able to fix that problem too. I was also advised to get my car detailed to make sure all the glass pieces were cleaned out. The majority of glass went onto the passenger seat and my purse that I ended up throwing away. There was some the flew into the backseat though. I was really pleased with the detail job, but about 6 months later, my sister was leaning against the open window and found a little piece of glass poking her arm. Goodness!

This past summer, Matthew needed a new tube in his bike tire. Again, this fell into a realm of things I didn't have experience in. I figured out the size of tube I needed and had to go to a couple stores to find the right one. I was reading the instructions and saw I needed a tool to remove the old tube. I recognized the tool as something I got rid of in a big garage clean-out I had done earlier in the summer. Dang it! Sean said he was pretty sure he saw one at our neighbor's house. I went and asked if they had some to borrow and they had an extra set that I could have. Yes! I got the tube replaced and inflated and I felt pretty dang amazing. Matthew came down to see the progress and was excited to take his bike out for a spin. I told him he needed to sing praises to my name because I figured out something new. Sean and Matthew took the old tube and taped up the holes and tried to explode it by over-inflating it. He had to replace the tape a couple times and it didn't actually explode, but it was funny to see how full that tube got.

Last week, my wifi wasn't working and I couldn't figure out why. There wasn't an outage, everything appeared to be working properly, but I couldn't connect. I called the internet company to try some troubleshooting and they basically told me they couldn't even find my router in their system because it's so old. I took some pictures of it and went to the local office to see if they could be more helpful than someone on the phone. The lady helping me stifled a laugh when she saw the picture of my router. She was like, "Yeah, that's not going to work for you anymore. It's super old." So she got me a new one and explained how to set it up. I got home and got it working on my own!! This is a big deal for me. I'm not super tech-savvy. My kids were so excited to have the wifi working again. A few days later I was trying to print something and it wasn't working. I realized the printer works over the wifi and with the help of some google searches, I was able to reconnect the printer too. I said to the kids "I'm find of a goddess!" They don't seem too impressed with my newfound ability to get stuff done, but I'm proud of myself.

Last night I was putting up some hooks in the boys' bathroom. Jon was very particular about shelves and things. He was really cute about tucking a pencil behind his ear and getting the level and making things just right. I'm not quite the perfectionist he was, but I do like to do things well. I gathered up the tools I needed and got started. I told Sean he needed to come help me. He didn't want to because he was reading and I shouted at him, "You need to learn some man-skills. You'll need to know how to do this in your future." He said he'll learn when he's 18 and I told him it would be too late then. I told him, "Your dad isn't here to teach you man-skills, so you're getting them from me!" We laughed and he still complained about having to help, but we got the job done.

I'm certain I have many more things to learn. I have also become comfortable hiring people to do certain things, like working in my crawlspace and building a new fence. I don't need to do everything to feel like a kick-ass, independent goddess.

Saturday Doldrums

I woke up Saturday morning feeling like crap. I was still tired and didn't want to get out of bed. I had some anxiety about an upcoming doctors appointment. It's just a routine physical, but I'm due for a tetanus shot and I don't know why, but it freaks me out thinking about it. I was feeling upset about people I love who have cancer. My mind kept going over all sorts of awful thoughts and I couldn't make it stop. I tried thinking about what I needed to calm me down. A cup of tea? A handful of M&Ms? What I really wanted was someone to come lay next to me in my bed. How do you reach out to friends and say "Come lay in bed with me because I'm having a lot of feelings and I don't know what to do with them and I don't want to be alone right now" without it being weird?

I debated with myself for a while if I should text a couple friends. I also wondered if it would be ok to explain to my kids what I was going through. I'm trying to show them that it's ok to have low moments, but also I don't want them to worry too much about me. I finally settled on inviting them into bed with me for some cuddles. They are usually up for some cuddles in the morning. I had them on both sides of me and I held them and kissed them a bunch. I didn't tell them much about my anxieties, just that I wasn't feeling great. They knew we had some activities planned for later that morning and that they weren't allowed to play on screens until we were done with those, so after about 10 minutes of snuggles, they told me to start getting ready for the day. Screen time is a big motivator around here. I laid in bed for a while longer watching some videos and finally got moving.

Our first activity was to go to a navy museum because they were having an event about UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles), which are what Jon worked on. I'm pretty sure that's right. I wanted to check them out with the kids. There were robotic submersibles for the kids to play with outside, which they liked a lot. There were other robotics inside that they had a good time with also.

When we first went inside, I worried that I might get emotional seeing something Jon could have potentially worked on. Once I saw that there were a few Navy people explaining the UUVs on display, I felt pretty sure it wasn't the same type Jon worked on, so I could relax. We wandered around and saw the changes that had been made since we visited the museum last, and then we went to do our other errands. 

As the day went on, I felt better and better. I think sometimes I just get stuck in my mind and I need to find a way to interrupt my anxious thoughts and feelings of self-pity. I know this logically, but it's hard to put into practice. Today was such a better day. I woke up motivated and alert (maybe because I went to bed a little earlier, and got an "extra" hour of sleep because of daylight saving time-even though I still hate that we change time twice a year). I went for a walk and worked in the yard and went to a friend's house for dinner. It was such a welcome change from yesterday. 

Life is unpredictable, and I have a hard time with that because I really like predictable. I desperately want to take away pain and suffering from people I care about. I don't like feeling helpless. I'm trying hard to find a way to be calm and at peace with the things I can't change. I realize I'm only one human. What I can do may not solve everything, but it will have to be enough. 

My Village

People say "it takes a village to raise a child." Thank goodness I have a kick-ass village.

I have been feeling so much gratitude for my village over the last couple of months. Some things have happened recently that would be impossible to handle alone. I have a dear friend who has needed a lot of rides to medical appointments. Between several other friends, we have been able to get her to all of them. Another loved one was recently diagnosed with cancer, and I have taken some time to be with her. There are times I bring my kids with me and other times I leave them behind. I have left them at home, or with friends that are able to help out if I need to be away for a long period of time. I often worry I might be leaving them too much, but at the same time I'm grateful for being able to help my friends (and set an example of service), and I'm in turn, grateful for friends that have helped me with my kids. Last month, I wasn't paying attention to the timing of an event Sean was attending, and wasn't able to pick him up when he was finished. I reached out to a newish friend who was able to help pick up my slack. Other friends have taken my kids to lunch or dinner or to their houses to play several times. It can be so hard for me, and others to ask for help, but there are just some times we can't do everything ourselves. I really hope my kids are watching and taking note of how our friends are helping each other so they can continue to do this when they are adults.

I often feel overwhelmed with being an only parent. However, I have surrounded myself with excellent people who love me and love my kids. People who are kind and patient and willing to help me when I need it. Friends that sit and listen to my complaining, friends that encourage my kids to do their schoolwork, friends that hug me when I'm crying when life gets too heavy. I'm just so grateful for people that continually show up.