The Hike

It was a gorgeous autumn evening in October.  Cool enough to wear a jacket and jeans.  Perfect weather for a hike.

Joe and I loaded the somewhat reluctant kids of ours into the van and drove over to the YMCA, where they have a perfect wooded trail filled with deer, owls, rabbits and other bits of wildlife.

I say "somewhat reluctant", because while Elijah and Isabel were not crazy about the idea of a family hike, Gabe was in his glory.  He filled his backpack up with binoculars, magnifying glass, a flashlight and a snack, donned his safari hat, and was ready to explore!  This picture says it all:

Just before we started out on the trail, Elijah looked at the clouds in the horizon and predicted rain.

"Not gonna rain til tonight", I said.

We found giant mushrooms, deer tracks, a group of deer, two rabbits, a gorgeous owl and gobs of acorns and walnuts before the first drops fell on our faces.

The sky grew dark, we started to walk faster, the wind picked up, we picked up our pace, the storm moved in and we broke into a run.  Gabe was convinced that we were in the middle of a tornado.  By the time we found our way back to the van, we were completely drenched.

What started out as the "best hike ever" quickly became "the WORST idea, Mom!".

It was a pretty memorable hike, though, one they're never gonna let me forget :)

Career vs Home

It's a tough decision to make.  

As a young teenager deciding on a college and a career path, girls don't often look down the road at how well their chosen job will coincide with a family life.  Once that stick turns pink and a baby is in the picture, however, thoughts of staying-at-home vs working-and-child-care quickly come to the surface.

Fortunately, I had older sisters and great mentors who encouraged me to think of these issues when deciding on a career.  Being a mom was the most important thing to me, even at the age of eighteen.  My babies were only a figment of my imagination at the time, but finding a job that would be flexible with good pay while allowing me to be a mom the majority of the time was my goal.  I knew a few nurses who raved about how well their jobs fit that bill, so I signed up for nursing school.  It was the best thing I've ever done.  Not only do I love my job (most of the time), but I love that I only have to work two nights a week, leaving me five nights to be what I most wanted to be:  a good mom.

Now that Elijah and Isabel are older, I am no longer called to volunteer as often as I used to be...but I still have Gabe, and I am having a great time volunteering in his class and for various school events.  It's so much fun to see him with his many (girl) friends:

and getting to have lunch with the first grade crew is always an experience (and reminds to be glad that I am not one of the crabby lunchladies...they need you, Aunt Chelle!):

Getting to go to events like Vehicle Day, where different careers are displayed along with their various vehicles (police, Army, truck drivers, farmers, hot air balloonists, and more!)...this is what I love about the choice I made for my own career over 20 years ago.

There are plenty of careers other than nursing that allow for moms to blend family life and work successfully.  I am finally at the point where I am not envious of stay-at-home moms; it was hard when my kids were little, and I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions every time I left the house to work my shift at the hospital.  They would cry when I put on my scrubs, and I would feel like crying from sadness and fatigue.  Now that they're older, they appreciate that I am working for our family, and I try to make the most of our time together.

Do you have a career that meshes well with motherhood?  If not, what is your dream job?  And would you ever want to be a lunchlady for a room full of 1st and 2nd graders?!

Future therapy?

I may have previously mentioned my love for all things scary.  Stephen King books, a good scary movie (Paranormal Activity, anyone?), haunted houses...I love it all.

And so do my kids.  I limit what I let them watch (Isabel does NOT like scary movies; Gabe has seen The Village, Signs, and Ghost Adventures and loves them equally).   But when they wanted to go with us to King's Island's Fear Fest, I happily obliged.

My niece, Katlyn, who is eight years old, fits right in with the rest of us, and she and Rhonda joined us for a very scary night of haunted train rides, freaky haunted carnivals and stalkers in a corn field.  

It was so much fun, I literally peed my pants (darn lack of bladder control).  Gabe kept his eyes closed for the first two attractions, but then he got into the spirit of the night and braved it with eyes wide open.

Isabel held onto her dad the entire night, but she claims that she had a lot of fun :)

It may cost me hundreds in therapy sessions at some later date, but boy, it was worth it!

Do you like scary stuff?  Would your kids love a good haunted house?  Ever read The Shining?

Bits and pieces

My dreams have improved recently, thankyouverymuch.  I guess returning to work and getting a handle on my to-do list helped, not to mention spending time with my family and friends and drinking a bottle (or two) of wine in the process.  Tried a new wine called "Middle Sister", a sweet white Moscato.  It went very well with my homemade chicken and rice soup on Saturday night...yum.

I finished the wedding invitation project (see Saturday night) for my friend, Tiffany.  She and her high school sweetheart are getting married on January 7th, and we came up with the most elegant snowflake-embossed invitations I've ever made...I can't wait to show you the finished project (when she mails them; don't want to ruin the surprise).

I (reluctantly) got my flu shot, a mandatory thing at the hospital.  My arm feels like it was punched with an iron hand, but at least there's another item I can check off of my list.

My birthday is coming up fast.  For some reason, this past year I had it in my head that I was 38, when really I was only 37.  So I get another year of being 38...that's a bonus!

After a busy night at work on Sunday, I was super tired on Monday, even after a good day's sleep.  My best-mother-in-law-in-the-world, Kay, made a delicious ham dinner for me and my family...I didn't have to cook or clean up and it was absolutely wonderful.

Sweater weather has officially arrived this morning, with the forecast calling for a high in the 50's today.  I'm sitting here, sipping coffee and pondering which sweater and boots combination I will wear...love that.

What's going on in your life this week?  Do you get a flu shot?  Love sweaters and boots?  Have a great mom-in-law?

Anxiety

Lately, I have been having dreams that can only be described as "anxiety dreams", or nightmares, as the case may be.

I dreamt about hosting Thanksgiving dinner (one of my favorite things to do), but in the dream, nothing went right.  Joe put out an Easter egg tablecloth, the rolls were burnt, the vegetables were rotten, an unexpected guest showed up, Isabel was giving me grief, and when I went to get the turkey out of the oven, I realized I had forgotten to get it out of the refrigerator, and I was going to have to serve leftover pork roast, instead.

The very next night, I dreamt about going to work and spending the entire shift doing everything but my work, only to realize that the day shift was about to arrive and I hadn't done a thing all night long.

Both mornings, my heart was pounding to beat the band, and I had a very hard time shaking that anxious feeling.  I knew these were typical anxiety dreams, but making my body settle down and realize that dreams they were, and not reality, was a tough thing to do.

I tried to identify the source of my anxiety...returning to work after being off for ten days?  Joe starting a new job?  Elijah preparing to leave for Washington, D.C. soon?  Gabe being covered in poison ivy?  My mom moving to Indiana?  Starting a new quarter of school?

Okay, the list became rather long.  No wonder I'm having such weird dreams.  Now I just need to figure out how to deal with it all.  I am not a worrier by nature, but clearly my subconscious is lately.  Hopefully just writing a blog post about it will make my conscious self take the bull by the horns and tell my subconscious to knock it off.  I'd really rather dream about a beach, the ocean, a beach and ocean with Daniel Craig...

How do you handle anxiety?  Does it give you nightmares?  What's your dream dream?

So many decisions...

Saturday was meant to be the perfect day for a photo shoot, and thanks to my incredibly talented big sis, Michelle, it turned out to be just that.  She loaded up her camera, new lenses and her photography prowess and headed north to capture our little family in our fall finest.

Seriously, Michelle, you rock!

We got pictures of each kid, from the oldest...

to the youngest...

to the beauty in between...

Fifteen years together, and we can still manage some smiles :)

My family means everything to me, and I am going to love hanging these pictures up around our home so I can see the love and smiles glowing back at me every day.

After two hours of posing and smiling and laying in leaves and throwing leaves in the air, Gabe (and the rest of the kids) were happy to be done.  And the grown-ups couldn't wait to get to the nearest computer to admire Michelle's work!

Also, a big thanks to my friend, Chelle, who let us "borrow" her family's old schoolhouse for the photo shoot.  We couldn't have asked for a better location!

Now, the decision as to what-pictures-to-hang-where comes next...help!

Witches and herbs and mums, oh, my!

I love decorating for fall, almost as much as for Christmas.  Isabel and I had a great time pulling out all of the boxes of pumpkins and witches and ghosts and setting them up carefully inside and out of the house.

Welcome to our little corner of the pumpkin patch:

This spring, you may remember that Isabel planted an herb garden of her own.  We recently started drying some of the lavender, rosemary and sage in the kitchen; I think we may freeze a bit of it, too, to use this Thanksgiving.

We have yet to visit a real pumpkin patch this fall, but are hoping to next week.  I'm looking forward to getting our family pictures done on Saturday...we haven't had a family picture in over five years, and it's time!

What are you looking forward to this fall?