a blended life

Remember how last week was difficult? And I didn't think it would get worse? And then I looked at the pictures from the week and remembered that we live in a pretty cool place and all isn't in the toilet? This week was worse. By a lot. Without the awkwardness of over disclosure and to preserve the dignity of the those not reading my blog (i.e. my husband and kids), let's just say that every area of our lives has suffered at least a little this week. School, finances, med school, work, finances, relationships, plus there's no chocolate in the house. I mention this so you don't think my life consists solely of world class museums, parks and pizza. Because those feel like afterthoughts, or sometimes tender mercies. Things are hard. The pizza is good. We will survive. HOMESCHOOL UPDATE: Surprisingly, we love homeschool. I've seen big changes in both girls the past few weeks. Leah has less anxiety and more problem solving ability. She laughs more a...

When I think about how to teach kids the value of hard work, I picture a very cliche farm scene in which we all wear overalls and shovel cow dung into buckets. Or at least do our own gardening and I'm making my kids weed the vegetables the way my parents made me weed (and I'm so grateful because now I love gardening and think weeding is fun. What happened to me....)  I had never considered that moving to NY would be a great opportunity for us to learn hard work skillz. The effort we have to put into menial tasks still surprises me sometimes and we are constantly trying to figure out what we absolutely have to get done and what we can do without. I won't go into the horrors of grocery shopping because I'll get worked up and lose sleep. Short version: I'm learning a LOT of vegetarian meals. None of them very good, but beans, rice and potatoes are becoming staples in every meal practically.  We have to wash clothes in a laundromat, which requires hauling the 1...

It's not hidden knowledge that Jacob is highly intelligent. There are some topics--math, physics, engineering, medicine, child-rearing (sarcasm)--that he seems to know everything about. It's endearing and irritating all at the same time. There are some topics that he is completely clueless on. Like the French language. He his a thick history of mispronouncing fairly common French words. Sometimes endearing, sometimes irritating. I guess we didn't all grow up with a dad who would sit at the dinner table and ask for the  beurre just for the pleasure of saying the word beurre.  Endearing: At our wedding breakfast, he order a Quick Lorraine  instead of quiche Lorraine. At the time it was equal parts shocking and hilarious, but now it's 100% hilarious. Sometimes I wake up at night and giggle myself back to sleep thinking about him wanting Quick Lorraine on our wedding day. Irritating: Referring to a vignette as a vig-net, with the G audible. Ugh. I'm cring...

I might rate this past August as one of the top 5 most stressful months of my life. I don't even really know how to explain why--just so many changes, decisions, unknowns and emotional upheavals happened. Too many to cope with. Too many to put into words. We're realizing more and more how difficult the girls' summer was with their dad in Utah. After putting many pieced stories together, I can see that things with him and his new wife are very similar to what I lived with many years ago. I've been reading some really great articles on the concept of gas lighting--a form of emotional abuse that is impossible to resolve or repair. It's such a relief to hear someone else's words about tough relationship issues that I went through. It makes me feel like I'm not alone in this world and that it wasn't in my head. Or I wasn't being too picky or too sensitive (all things I've heard.) At the same time, Leah especially wants to resolve conflict and work o...