I cannot believe that I haven’t written since January…  I think that month was a blur, as much of the others were prior to us getting ready to have my parents back at home and out of “the home.”  They came back to their house on the first of February.  I cooked for them the entirety of the month, and it about killed me.  I would cook nearly all of the day on Sunday and make sure that everything was portioned out for them for the week.  These activities gave me no sense of weekends, and by March, my partner and I were pretty disconnected.

This is only one of three piles

Now, I’ve got TONS of grading.  Tons.  I should be grading right now, but I’m watching my son read a little bit while I write this entry to kind of get back to me.  This particular class involves not only reading reports, but also grading test events, and if someone has made one computation error, it not only throws the test protocol off, but also has potential to effect interpretation that goes into reports.  To date, I’ve read over 500-pages and I have way more prior to May 21st. I’m so glad that we leave for Hawaii three days after that.  I will really miss my son, but am grateful that he is doing so well as of late.  I think that he benefits from having two parents.  I’m blessed that she has stuck by me through the end of my schooling, dissertation, a new job, weddings, and sick parents.  She also had to learn how to be a stepparent.

My Mom still really has no self-help skills to speak of.  She has gotten to the point where I don’t think that she plans on leaving the house again, which is such a far cry from attending my son’s soccer games just a year ago.  Granted, that was probably the ONLY time that she left the house, but she did.  I wanted her to go to his dance recital in two-weeks, but she doesn’t want to at this point.  It’s really sad.

I think that for a first couple of years together that my partner and I really hit the stress-o-meter.  I’m starting to feel like we’ll get a reprieve at this point.  Not much more could happen.  We have been consciously working on staying focused on each other and making sure that things are balanced in the house.  I’m glad that we have gotten through some pretty rough patches, and I do think, as trite as it sounds, we will be better for it.