To be whole again

December 28, 2015 changed the course of our life.  Really it started 10 days earlier when you got a call on an application you put out.  A thing that was completely unexpected.  A few interviews and a major snow storm later and you had yourself a whole new career if you wanted it...New Year's Eve I sat at table A1 with my boss across from me the crew beginning the prep for the sales to come.  I gave her the news.  I cried.

As you and I said our goodbyes to jobs we deeply cared for we also said hello to the unknown and adventure that laid ahead of us.  You and I, we don't do normal very well.  We have always been go big or go home.  Here we were knowing that you were about to leave for 11 weeks and there were chances that this job wouldn't work out.  In fact for some of your classmates it didn't.

Who needs a bowl for watermelon chunks...

February 4 the boys and I dropped you at the airport.  Sweet tender Man of the Woods sobbed...Looking back, I'm glad we did it.  I think it's safe to say that all four of us hold a higher value for each other then we did before this journey began.

...Cup holders work just as well.

Now that you are back together life has found it's balance.

We have time to simply be together, no longer rushing through life as we pass off the children to each other.

You and I have gone to bed together for the last 10 years, but now we fall into our bed at a normal hour.

We do chores together, and teach our boys to do them too.

We eat dinner together every single night.

My first fish of the year.

We walk the driveway together hand in hand just because.

After finding worms, dead or alive, in both big and small boy pockets when doing the wash I swore to myself I would never put worms in my pocket on a fishing trip no matter what.  This weekend I found myself eating my words.

We sit in the sun together watching our boys play.

Three generations hiking out of the woods.

Together we slow and see the joy around us.

It is good to be us.