Happy Birthday to my sister

Happy Birthday little sis!!!

The bird lives

It's been almost two weeks now, and no dead bird smell in my car. That little tiny bird somehow found it's way out.

As for me... the transition from full time working Mom to full time stay at home Mom has not been easy, but it's been one of the happiest times of my life. I had all these grand plans - lists of projects, many friends to visit and numerous draft blog posts to complete now that I had all this time since I wasn't working. Go ahead fellow SAHM's...laugh it up.

My life has been filled with transporting kids, helping in the classroom, after-school activities, helping with homework, cleaning the house, cooking, yoga (yes, I did manage to find some time for myself!) and volunteering. My life was exhausting before I was laid off, but these days I'm usually so physically exhausted by the end of the day, I literally collapse into bed. Still, I've been loving every minute of it.

I've slowly been thinking about what I want to do next, how long we can hold out before I look for another job and whether we can get by with me working part time instead of full time. We've even been seriously considering my husband pursuing an assignment at his company that would involve all of us moving to Spain for a couple of years!

And then...our life changed again. My husband's company went through a reorganization, and he was laid off. Unlike my lay-off, that I saw coming a mile away, his was completely unexpected for us.

In a matter of three months, we went from being a two income family, to a no income family. This is not exactly how I envisioned 2010 playing out for us.

After my husband told me, he said "It's ok, you can cry now". But I didn't. Maybe partly because I was still in shock. Maybe partly because I immediately went into survival mode - thinking about and planning how we are going to get through this. Maybe partly because I started thinking about that bird.

I was 99.9% sure that there was no possible way that bird got out and I was certain that it had died somewhere in my car. But it didn't. It found a way out.

Now I think I know what 2010 is about. It's about hope. It's about remembering that even when it seems like there is no way out, there is. You just have to look hard enough. And believe you will find it.


This post is dedicated to Issa.

There may or may not be a dead bird in my car

When I come home with the kids, I usually need to make more than one trip to unload everything. The other day, I left my car door open in between trips to unload. When I came out, I discovered a little bird had flown into my car. Instead of opening more doors and letting the poor thing out of my car, I immediately locked him in and ran to get the kids so they could see it.

That's your first instinct, right? Not free the little flying animal inside my car before it poops all over my seats. No. Trap it inside for awhile longer. Because that's a good idea.

When we came back out to the car...no bird. Anywhere in the car. And I mean anywhere. I got out a flashlight, and searched. And searched. And searched. WTF happened to that bird?

I'm 99% sure it did not fly out before I shut the door. I'm just as sure it didn't fly out when we opened the door. Either it found some other way out of my car, or it flew up into the dashboard or something, and died.

How long does it take for a dead bird to start smelling...?

Resolved

soak in every moment

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live simply this is my favorite because it works backwards too... simply live. 'nuff said.