Friday, January 6, 2012

What a week!

This was a big week for my family. My mom and her mother (my grandmother, Nanny) haven't seen one another in almost seven years. Families have problems all the time, I know. But this was difficult for me. I am close to my mom, but I am also close to, and live next door to, Nanny. I have always felt torn (even though neither of them pulled me or asked to be on their side of the issue) between them and to be honest, it has weighed on me much more than I realized. They recently spoke on the phone for the first time, and this week my mom came up to visit! It was awesome. There is a lot of sadness and pain, and that's not going to automatically go away, but relationships are re-building and that's a wonderful thing!

Here is my mom, nanny and the boys (As a side note, Braeden was only 8 months old when they became estranged, so he has NO memory of ever seeing the two of them together...makes this photo a little more awesome):



We spent a lot of time together, just talking over coffee and shopping...girl stuff. :) I think we all really enjoyed ourselves.

Thankfully, in the midst of this, my tax schedule didn't actually start this week so I was able to spend that extra time with them. I will however, start next week. You know what that means...

Weekly whining. Heh.

I will make a conscious effort to NOT whine. Just remember, I'm trying. It's not success I'm looking for, but effort. Keep that in mind.

This weekend we are going to spend a quick overnight with my in-laws. They live out of the country and were not in town for Christmas, so we are going down this weekend to have our holiday with them. The boys love being able to see everyone and spend time with their cousins, so even though it's going to be a short trip, we are all excited about it.

Next week, we are going to try again with the work thing. I have all of my laundry done. Yes, this is a note-worthy accomplishment. The house is clean and organized. Cleaned out the Cobalt (which I should be driving anyway, as it's better on gas). In year's past, we have never been this ready. Go us.

As far as grocery shopping and everything, that task falls to the hubs while I'm working (yaaaaaay! I know I should feel ashamed for putting that burden on him, but I HATE grocery shopping!). He and the boys enjoy planning our meals though, so I don't think any of them mind.

The boys were supposed to officially start back to school - as official as we ever get at any rate - this week, but with the unexpected visit, that was squashed. Oh well. Fortunately, we have got that "go with the flow" thing down. And since we aren't planning any mid-year changes to any part of our homeschool curriculum, I'm not worried too much about finding our groove again. Like I said before, we tend to take an unschooling approach during tax time anyway. I am behind on printing their progress reports, but that doesn't take too much time to fix. I don't keep these for myself...not for grading purposes or anything (remember, I don't like putting pressure on them...I want them to learn for the sake of learning). But, I do need them for their homeschool portfolios. Which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying "homeschool records," lol. I should get on that before the end of the school year actually rolls around...

One last thing. I said in a previous post that we watched two of the three Millennium movies last weekend. Well we watched the third and final movie this week. That trilogy, and the story it told, has got to be one the best things we have watched in a long time. I have had the books (for those unfamiliar with the Millennium series, it's the Stieg Larsson books: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) for quite a while, but knew I wanted to watch the Swedish films first. I am so excited to start reading these now, and then seeing how David Fincher did with the American remake. What I am trying to say with all of that is, everyone should watch the films and read the books. It's so worth the time! It's dark and, at times, very graphically violent. But if you can find time, I don't think anyone would regret it.

Okay, that's all for now. Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

4 comments:

Kerry said...

Just had to pop in to say that you have some incredibly good genes in your favor missy...how beautiful and young both your mom and grandmother look!!! I understand a thing or two about the stress of family estrangements, so I am SO happy for all of you! :) Be thinking of you as the big tax marathon begins this week...

Unknown said...

Thanks, Topsy! :) I need lots and lots of happy thoughts for tax time, lol. And then, in a couple of months, I'll need a margarita. In a fish bowl. :D

Jessica said...

Hi Kat - I popped over from Growing Your Homeschool (thanks for the comment!). I'm following you now - don't you love internet stalking? Hoping your mom & grandmother find peace - what a wonderful start!

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by Jessica! And yep, Internet stalking really is a lot of fun! ;)