I believe I’ve mentioned before, I don’t particularly like October. I love fall, but in Alaska, fall is typically over once October hits.

Leaves have fallen off the trees.
It’s dark.
There isn’t snow.

It’s also when the first round of PFDs come out – this is a positive & a negative. It usually means money has been way too tight & now going into the stores are awful … because everyone now has a bit of cash to spend. The stores treat it like another Black Friday.

Also:
22 years ago I got married in October.
18 years ago my husband chose to work in a location requiring him to live elsewhere.
17 years ago he left.

As much as I want to, I don’t particularly like October. But this year God had a different plan. I believe this is the beginning of the evidence of the changes He has been preparing me for. It is 5am on October 3rd in the Seattle Airport – mom, Christine and I are off for an adventure. We actually made the tickets a month ago and we’ve been able to look forward to October coming. It’s been fun.

Other than backing up this site, the last time I looked at this blog was February 2nd and it’s now October 2nd – uh, seriously?! Eight months have gone by???

Here we are at another #31Days Challenge … This year I’m going to write about one word journeys. They will probably mostly come from one word thoughts regarding the last 18 months or so of life.

So much has happened and then again, not really. All “productivity” of the last eight months has happened in the last couple months or so. There are so many things I could go back and recap, but I’m just going to start where we are today and then I’m hoping to go forward from here – giving background as we go. Because of the nature of all the changes, the details will be working their way out as I start to process.

Here’s the super-duper short nutshell version of our life realities over the last 18 months:

• My daughter had a horrific end of her Sophomore year. My son, Vince, was a HUGE support for her. They are three years/two grades apart.
• He then graduated from high school in May 2016.
• Vince left for college last fall. August 1st. He drove out with his best friend. Which means, his college experience started with him going on an International road trip – in a vehicle we’d owned for about two weeks.
• His leaving was truly awful for my daughter and I. I expected it to be bad – but it was 10x+ worse than I/we expected. I think the whole ending of year prior/single parent/homeschool together-all-the-time home kind of backfired when it was suddenly just her & I.
• Vince home for his first Christmas break from college.
• Vince got engaged while home for Christmas Break.
• He left for the last time after a Christmas break from college.
• Over $10K has been spent for Christine’s medical doctor appointments this calendar year. Pretty sure this is more than the total combined of her medical, dental, and eye costs of her whole life put together. SO THANKFUL for insurance!
• Going to that many doctor appointments is a full-time job. Especially when the bulk of the appointments were an hour away one-way from home.
• Christine got her driver’s license.
• She completed her Junior year – in spite of the sickness.all.year.
• My daughter, my baby, is a SENIOR!
• Vince completed his freshman year in college – with straight A’s! Simply amazing.
• He came home for the last time as a young, single adult. We had six weeks until the wedding and he was working full-time.
• My son got married in June! I now have another daughter. She is wonderful. I’m a mother-in-law?! Pretty sure I’m not mature enough for this role.
• My bestest-sister-friend of 20+ years came to visit me for the FIRST TIME EVER, for a whole 10 days. She came for my boy’s wedding. She helped with last minute decoration making. She helped my dad cook the Rehearsal Breakfast. She was our last minute appointed wedding coordinator. She helped us set up. She did the bride’s make-up. …and we forgot to take a picture of us together at the wedding???! We remembered four days later, then only took a couple – with the wind blowing!
• My oldest turned 20.
• Christine went on an 8-day kayaking trip in Canada.
• My youngest turned 17.
• Five short weeks after the wedding, my son and his bride left to go back to college.
• Because Christine can now drive herself, she gets to take a ton of classes – five at the school and four dance classes.
• Just like that, I get to stay home. All by myself for 10-12 hours four days a week. (Life is weird!)
• For the first time in over 20 years, I have the opportunity to work full-time from home (she has the car).
• I’m working on figuring out a new routine. A new normal. I believe blogging will be part of this new normal. I have an ounce of mental space, again. I can think in mostly coherent sentences – almost.

This has been a LOT of changes! My mind & body are just starting to feel a little bit “normal” for the first time in a really long time. We have had over 18 months of non-stop, major life-altering changes.

What was “normal” 18 months ago will never be again. TRUTH.
Most all are/were good changes. right changes. healthy changes. TRUTH.

It’s still exhausting. TRUTH.

This extremely introverted, slow processing, highly sensitive momma is tired. Through it all, I worked hard to remember to EMBRACE the changes. Some moments all I had to do was remember I wanted to, other moments took hours of praying myself through.

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