February 2010 Update

We're finally feeling healthy again after a whole month of us all being constantly sick with colds, coughs, sinus and ear infections. There are some big changes ahead, including a new job for me (yay!) starting Feb 15th. Marina is now eating rice cereal, and after only a few tries has been eating a whole bowl at one sitting. Theron is doing great at school, constantly learning more than I can keep up with, and Ciaran now knows when to tell Mommy that she's a pain in the a**. Great. Daddy and Gramps just finished installing a tankless water heater this afternoon. Next project will be to sheet-rock the attic and create a boys' bedroom and playroom suite up there.
For me, life has been a day-to-day battle with imbalance so I'm constantly trying to figure out how to bring balance back. There's always a reason why I can't get everything I want done at night on workdays (I'm so tired at night) and the weekends are a mix of feeling guilty about not getting enough cleaning and cooking done, and feeling guilty about not spending enough time connecting with my children. Being out of shape and overweight doesn't help and poses yet another challenge to add to the list. So change is slow but I think I'm making progress. Now I really understand the meaning of the expression "there's not enough hours in the day". I really slacked off with the cleaning in January and now I'm paying for it in hours spend scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming. We'll catch up. I try to keep this in mind - live your life everyday how you want to live it, don't wait for the right conditions or timing. Living backwards in time, as Deepak says. BE the person you want to be every day instead of wishing you were that person. I love this quote: "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist hopes the wind will change; the realist adjusts the sails". Here are some photos from January. Changing around the furniture is so theraputic!