Our family's year: batten down the hatches and hold on tight

kgranju — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:54:00 GMT

Jon's Uncle Tom died today, at the hospital right up the street from us. He was diagnosed with cancer about 6 months ago, and a staph infection took him today. He was Jon's mother's only sibling - a fascinating person I am glad to have known.

Yesterday, J graduated 8th grade and moved up to high schooler status (see photos below). The ceremony was really moving; Jane has been at this school (with a brief interlude elsewhere in grades 2-3) grade since kindergarten. Some of these kids started kindergarten with her, and to look at these gorgeous, accomplished, bright-eyed teenage girls walking across the stage with her on Friday really took my breath away.

J's last day of middle school also marked E's last day of elementary school, another huge milestone.

Two days before that, our whole family came together to send H off on a great adventure; he'll be finishing up summer school and then his senior year of high school at a boarding school many states away. My eldest baby is gone, and if he goes straight to college as I hope, he may never again live at home full time. I can't even open the door to his bedroom yet without bursting into tears.

Jon has taken three parts of the four part CPA exam in the past 10 days. He takes the last section on Tuesday. It's like taking the bar exam for weeks and weeks. Before that, he was studying 24/7 on top of doing his regular job for the past several months.

Seven weeks ago, I started a brand new job. That came nine months after starting another new job; in other words, I've changed jobs twice in the past year. Both were great opportunities, and each transition came with good feelings from my employers, but still....two job changes in the past year. I absolutely LOVE what I am doing now - and feel incredibly lucky - but as anyone who has done it knows, changing jobs under any circumstance marks a pretty big transition.

In the past nine months, I've suffered two miscarriages.

Six months ago, Jon's father's brother died of cancer.

Nine months ago, my 64 year old father died very unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism, breaking my heart.

The economy has completely tanked since the end of the year, and far too many of my friends are out of work, or struggling to stay afloat.

My beloved grandmother, who lives 3 hours away from me, has, in the past 12 months, become completely bedridden. Because of everything else going on, I have been unable to spend as much time with her as I should, or would like. I feel stressed and unhappy about this on a daily basis.

Are you getting the picture here? The past year has sort of, well, KICKED MY ASS. If I took one of those "how much stress are you under" tests online, my computer would likely explode into flames. Sometimes, lately, I feel like I, myself might spontaneously explode into flames.Some of this stress is "good stress," like children maturing and my new job, but it's still stress - and there has just been a lot of it in recent months.

I know that I remain incredibly blessed. I take some time for gratitude each day; I really do. I understand that none of my children have serious illnesses, and we have an income and a roof over our heads. I take absolutely none of that for granted. But seriously, this past year has just been....overwhelming. I know we have to turn the corner soon on the deluge of Life's Big Moments coming one on top of the other.

It's funny how some periods of your life are like this, testing your coping skills, and challenging you to push yourself harder, trying your best to set a good example for your children in how to roll with whatever fate throws your way. This past year has made me realize how much more important it is to appreciate every single moment, as it's happening, because you never know what tomorrow - or even the next ring of the phone - might bring.

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Our family's year: batten down the hatches and hold on tight