Belated Birthday Party!

We enjoyed an evening with our neighbors, celebrating Kali's birthday (one week past). Dinner, complete with her favorites (macaroni and cheese, black olives, soybeans, etc...), followed by a fire to roast marshmallows and ending with Pin the Tail on the purple-striped zebra was enjoyed (hopefully by all). See: http://picasaweb.google.com/bennerj8/KaliSBirthdayParty

The above link gives a taste of the evening. The final picture is pretty telling as Jason and I are feeling a bit more tired than Kali appears at the moment!! She is enjoying a new game she just received this evening - Phase 10 for kids. She is really into games these days.

I've been putting in long days in the office and that is wearing on me (orientation for our new graduate students starts Monday!). It might seem odd, on the tail end of a post in which I commented on how much I enjoy busy and full days, to say that I am not enjoying the difficulty I'm experiencing balancing the demands of home and work right now. But it's true.

I realize right now that I need more space than I have needed at other junctures in life's journey. When I go at work for 10 hours plus straight without stopping and then come home to a house of many needs and a 5-year old with many ideas, I don't have the time to slow down and check in with myself. I can understand why some persons intentionally make themselves really busy after a big loss. Life can only get so full. For me, these days where I hardly have a moment to reflect on our journey with Nora and to feel the ache of missing her don't feel healthy or good to me. Somehow it feels like I need to keep feeling that ache to continue the healing process. So I'm hoping my work situation is temporary and I'm trying to find ways to make it through this time...

The most helpful thing for me this week so far was taking care of Phoebe Wednesday evening. She makes me happy and she seemed pretty happy to cart around with the Myers-Benners for the evening. She even followed Kali all the way from the front room to Kali's room (that's a long way crawling on a hard floor). What a pumpkin!