From the Start

I have a teething 13 month old who still struggles with staying asleep and whose started pushing boundaries. I have a cat who is over-grooming and mowing all her belly fur off. I have a wonderful husband whose love I cherish daily. Together our lives are stressful, but not unhappy.



As another year begins, the world seems full of a hope that is different from that which I have experienced before. This hope is a well spring of something deeper than renewed plans to dejunk, lose weight, and do the dishes in a timely manner. These plans at work in my heart are about a complete paradigm shift from the life I've been leading to something richer in meaning.


My daily life has become a monotonous routine of moment to moment triage from morning until I can crawl back into bed at night. Daily struggles to do laundry, dishes, cleaning, feeding my son, cleaning him, dressing him, paying the bills, running the errands, sharing the car with my husband, keeping up contact with family and friends... I have felt like I wasn't living so much as being pulled along by the vague promise that someday I would sleep more than 3 hours in a row.

This holiday with my husband and son has been amazingly restorative to me. We've had13 days together before my husband has to go back to work! 10 of them are gone, but I plan to use up these last 3 with happy moments to restore us, fortify us against the long months ahead.

I have planned so much work for these 3 days, but I know that next week and the weekend, we will celebrate our diligence by resting before we begin packing for our move.
We have so much to do, but the hope of getting it all accomplished is much more tangible than it was 10 days ago.

I feel like, for the first time since August, we are going to get ahead of our chores, we are going to get our lives in order, we are going to do these things because we are not who we once were, but so much more than that. We are going to be who we want to be because we have decided to face responsibility, instead of deferring it.

We are going to work together to be great parents.
We are going to work together to be more than who we were before.
We are going to sort our belongings and prepare for our future.
We are going to consolidate our debt and get serious about repayment.
We are going to radically change the way we work together as a team.
We are going to move in April.
We are going to be debt free in 12 years.