September was a really good month for me and Aaron. Truth be told we've had a really rough year and we finally found a way to turn things back around. It has been a very gradual change, but we went through the toughest challenges we've ever been through as a couple and so even the gradual shift has felt amazingly splendid.
Our struggles were tied to a combination of work stress, life stress and the differences in how we each handle those things. I'm a very emotionally eager kind of person and Aaron is a bit more emotionally withdrawn. You can imagine that our individual coping mechanisms don't match and so neither of our needs were being met and thus we really struggled through the highly stressful times that we faced this year.
Me needing him, and him needing me NOT to need him as much I did created this vicious cycle that we finally found control of.
We found a common
ground in that, above all else, we love each other. and accept one another for
the people we are. We agreed that we wanted to honor the good we have
shared by being patient and strong through the not-so-good times and the
picture above represents the same sentiment to me.
The picture below is the paradise vacation I've been fantasizing about taking with Aaron now that we are more in sync and feeling in love all over again!
Maybe some day I'll be brave enough to fly across the ocean to Hawaii (i.e., when my kids are older and don't depend on me for their survival anymore.)
We might make due with a trip to wine country for our 8th wedding anniversary. We've never done that before and as we've gotten older our appreciation for good wine has developed so it seems like a logical and romantic way to celebrate our next anniversary.
Also important to mention are the kids. These three were the focus of all our efforts throughout the trying times of this year. Aaron and I are both committed to giving them the best that this life has to offer (love, happiness, examples of strength in character). That commitment was part of what kept things in perspective for us even everything else seemed so confusing.
They were sick for most of the month of September. The pictures below make it seem much more serious than it was. They really just had really aggressive colds, but out of respect for others we wore masks to keep the germs to ourselves (they are still not great about covering their faces when they cough.)
It surprised and pleased me that they kept the masks on as well as they did.
You know my kids are sick when they fall asleep at meal times. This was a complete first for me as a mom. I always feel so bad when I see kids falling asleep at the table. I hate the feeling of exhaustion so I try to make sure my kids get plenty of rest, but apparently it still wasn't enough for Sito while his little body was so busy fighting off that bug!
We kept our spirits up in spite of it all. We still took our weekend jaunts to the park and threw in a lunch date here and there!
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| "Hmmm. I don't know what I think about this one" |
We got excited about Halloween. I love that the stores put Halloween stuff out in August. (I think I'm the only one.)
Our (premature) Halloween fever put everyone in the mood to play dress-up which is a new thing for our household.
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| I wish I could be this happy even while sick! |
I mean seriously. You wouldn't even know she was sick if not for the congested nose and hoarse voice. (I completely lost my voice for about a week.)
By the end of the month the kids and I were almost fully recuperated just in time for us to attend a neighbor girl's birthday party. She held an exclusive tea party for girls only from 10-noon and the party opened up to the rest of the invitees at noon. Apparently though, the girls at the tea party were over it after 5 minutes so you can imagine how ironic the girl moms found it to be when we showed up and my boys went right for the tea pot. They could not be torn away from it the entire time. They didn't even care to jump in the bounce house. Classic.
There wasn't much else to report except the usual things that make mommies like me sentimental and proud.
Like how I can't believe how fast this boy is growing up.
Or how proud I was when my sister said "Wow, guys! Your mom makes you fresh lemonade? I wish my mom did that for me when I was a kid!"
And how observant this little Missy is.
And this little buddy. He is growing up so fast and making me so proud (his behavior does displease me at times, too, but he really made some leaps this month so lets focus on those!)
We study virtues each week and one week we focused on "caring" Mac drew a picture of himself helping his sister with her cup while they were in the car. The situation had happened days before. Ava had removed the lid from her cup and when Mac noticed he kindly said, "Oh no, Ava. You're gonna spill. Here." Then he took her cup, replaced her lid and straw. While she protested with cries, he said "I'll give it back to you. I promise." and then when he did he said "See I told you I'd give it back."
Not only was I impressed with him that day (I was sure to tell him so) I was very impressed days later when I asked him if he could recall a time he did something caring for someone else.
He's a special guy!
I was definitely impressed the day he did this!
And have loved reading the books he has made. This was one about dinosaurs. He drew lots of different dinosaurs and did a really great job if you ask me!
Well that sums up our month. October is going to be a doozy as we have really gotten into the Halloween/Fall fun!
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