Thematic Photographic - Watery

Since writing anything takes so much time - and I have very little of that - I'm going to try to do Thematic Photographic weekly. Yes, I'll continue to try to post something daily. But this will "break it up" a bit, making the actual writing seem less daunting. Enjoy, and please join in the fun if you haven't already.

These Watery pics were taken in April 2005 in Kauai, Hawaii, to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of our friends.

Here's a quick primer on how Thematic Photographic works:

1. Every Wednesday evening, Carmi over at Written Inc. posts a new Thematic Photographic entry.
2. Each entry has a unique theme. This week's is...watery.
3. You post a similarly themed image over on your blog.
4. You paste a link to your entry in a comment here.
5. If you've already posted something that fits (on a blog, Facebook, MySpace, wherever) simply post the link to the existing entry.
6. You may post one per day, many per day, one each day of the entire week, whatever suits your fancy. This is all about sharing, so feel free to share to your heart's content!
7. Please share this link with friends, too. Carmiwants this thing to being photographic happiness to lots of people - and he needs your help.

Defining Moments

My Mother In-Law visited for a week a few weeks ago. It's always a difficult time, all of us living together under the same roof. This visit was no exception. But it was good.

A couple of times during that week I had some defining moments. Moments where something in my body and soul shifted just enough to have the strength to support some major changes.

You see, for the past 4 years or so, I've been letting myself go and all the while I've been feeling like I've lost my strength. Don't get me wrong, I've been working my tushie off - the figurative tushie more than the literal one - keeping a young child alive, tending to the needs of my work and earning a paycheck, keeping the daily flow of wake-eat-poop-work-sleep. The worst part is that I've lost a bit of my happy "Sass n' Tude" in the process.

It's not going to be like that any more. I'm taking it all back.

She didn't get away without my saying something; about how it's hard to live together, how being 3 is even harder, how we are the grown ups, and that we must talk in order to make it better - after all we're a team.

I've committed to my health and well being TOO and enlisted the support needed to get more.

I negotiated three days a week. Two weekday mornings to go to the gym and to work early and one weekend morning to do as I see fit - which is probably to go to the gym. Wood will be responsible for Twig on those mornings. Breakfast. Clothes. Teeth brushing. Hair Combing. Lunch. Getting to daycare. 100% Dad.

I've begun Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs and committed to doing so for at least two months to get ahead of how crappy I feel physically. I've been following Doctor's orders around food. Quit caffeine and alcohol.

I joined Weight Watchers. I lost 3 pounds in week 1. Damn that feels good! I'm going to lose 29 pounds more and feel even better.

Twig starts a new pre-school soon. It's less than a mile away from our house and is an excellent school. No more driving 20 miles to get to my work that's only 4 miles from my house any more!

Time, Weight Watchers, exercise, herbs and acupuncture. Slightly different focus. Better Balance.

More me.

Chicken Pox

Twig has Chicken Pox. While it's a very mild case, he is not allowed to go to school until the blisters crust over. Anywhere between 7 & 10 days from yesterday.

Thank goodness both Wood and I have supportive workplaces, paid time off, and an internet connection (not to mention a laptop courtesy of the job)... It is kinda hard to get much productive work done with a not-really sick kid in the house. So we've opted for full length feature films: The Incredibles, Ice Age, Wallace & Gromit's Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and the all too scary Bee Movie. After all, we're required to make a few concessions.

I may be creating a monster but... I'm able to write some while Twig plays "Cooking with Rosita" on the Sesame Street website. It probably would be irresponsible to take him to the park, even on such a beautiful day as today. Other people don't really want their kids exposed to Chicken Pox (although my sister tells me her friends with kids all around the same age had [enter illness here] Parties - to get them exposed and [it] over with faster) and we have also been told that we might be contagious, even though we both had chicken pox as young children.

The drag of the Pox is that Twig is supposed to start at a new preschool on the 2nd of September - this week would be his last at his "old" school; we were going to do some transition practice this week at the new school and have a "new school" party on his last day at the current school. All of this is completely unplanned and unexpected. Seems as though that's the way life goes with young kids in the house.

There are worse things!

#165

I propose a toast to my self control.
You see it crawling helpless on the floor.



Someday there will be a cure for pain.

I'll soon be back daily. Really, I'll find a way.