The funny this about this place is that even though it’s mine and I can technically write whatever I want I often shy away from sharing the heavier stuff. I want this place to be cheerful and uplifting. I don’t want to talk about grief and grumps and unexpected turns.  But I also want to be authentic and real so that all of you can be the same with me.

Here’s the low down…

Seth has been hearing whispers that have now become announcements in some offices about he and many of his colleagues getting furloughed. IF this goes through this would mean they will still have their jobs and benefits but they will be sent home and not paid their salaries. This could come in many forms, likely to be a day or more a week in which he can’t go to work. We are already on a tight budget and now this means he would take likely a 20% or more pay cut. Eeeek. So we are obviously hoping it just doesn’t happen at all like people are predicting. But in the event that it does we have to be proactive.

So, how does this affect us? Besides stress and anxiety?! It means that I am in the midst right now of studying to retake my boards. It seems the state of Virginia doesn’t love a Texas license and will not grant me my Virginia license unless I retest. What??  I have worked for years to maintain my continuing ed classes and credentials and I still need to go through all of the motions again. Which as you can imagine with kids and a house to keep running is challenging. My field is very much science based and technical and the areas that pushed my comfort zone in my dreamy young single years will most certainly push me again.  So while I am excited to eventually have a license and be able to contribute financially to our family again, the task before me feels quite huge.  Not even taking finding a job into consideration yet.

Yet as I feel overwhelmed about going back to work and facing this mountain I am bustling around getting the kids ready to head out the door to take Jackson to his final ortho appointment.   I am keenly aware that had someone told me Jackson would break one bone, then another, that I would have seen that as a similar, seeming impossible mountain to climb. and yet we have already completed that climb. We lived through it. The bones aren’t quite like they were but we learned and grew in that experience. Our son learned so much about working through frustration, social side effects and things I hadn’t anticipated. Worse things have happened to so many other people, but that was one of our mountains. And I am so thankful it is behind us.  I can see how God gave us the patience and strength to get through it.

So I face this new mountain, I am a bit defeated and frustrated that the circumstances weren’t better. I feel ill-equipped for the climb but that doesn’t change the fact that the mountain is still there, staring me in the face.  2013 will no doubt bring with it some interesting times, unexpected ones no doubt.  January is typically a slow month of holiday recovery and a tinge of winter blues as we anticipate Spring. This year is just kicking to get a move on. February here we come!