Mid-Year Review

Well, we’re halfway through 2010, and I’m supposed to be writing a book review for my SPED law class. Which, of course, means I’m writing a blog post instead. Here’s my half-year in review, in no particular order.

We’ve celebrated 5 years of marriage, 28 years of life (for me), 6 years of sobriety (also, me), 3 years of life (Jocelyn) and 1 year of life (Robs). We’ll celebrate Lee’s 29th birthday in August.

We scheduled Jocelyn’s birthday party four times and had to cancel it three times. We finally had it about two months after her birthday.

We planted a fruit, veggie, and herb garden for the second year. And Jocelyn has, once again, eaten every ripened tomato before it made it to the kitchen.

I completed 15 credit hours of grad school. (In other words, I disappeared from the real world.) To be honest, I completed 9 in the spring, and I’m a couple assignments short of completing the other 6, but it’s close enough that I’m counting them now! Which also means that...

I completed my last semesters as a full-time grad student for this program. I’ll have three hours in the next summer session and six hours in the fall (three of which include finishing my research and writing my thesis), but those are part-time student hours.

I decided, despite the work involved, that I would readily earn another degree after this if someone else would finance it. I have a lengthy list of academic areas in which I’d be willing to pursue another graduate degree. I love academia. I am a nerd.

I discovered Trader Joe’s. And Joe-Joe’s. Mmm.

We drove approximately 3300 miles to visit friends and family in Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. We could be crazy, but we’re planning to do this again every year. It was a wonderful trip – both the visits and the drive itself.

I haven’t posted on the blog about that trip or much else this year. See the item above about my grad school work and the one below about my TFA work for the reasons.

I have not gotten MRSA or c. diff. This isn’t something most people would include on their lists, but I’m special like that. Last year: three bouts of MRSA and one of c. diff. This year: none.

We registered Jocelyn to start preschool this fall.

We decided, after much prayer, that we’ll be forfeiting our preschool deposit and teaching her preschool stuff at home instead.

We had the sweet blessing of Lee’s sister living with us for several weeks as she and her husband were in the process of relocating from Wilmington to Durham. I miss having another girl to chat with (a girl who isn’t three, that is)!

I took the kids strawberry picking for the first time.

I took Lee strawberry picking for the first time when I learned that he had never been.

I weaned Robbie after 13 months of nursing. This is a huge answer to prayer because there were several health obstacles that made it seem unlikely that we would meet the goal of 12 months without formula, and we regularly asked friends to join us in prayer that I would be able to breastfeed him as long as I was able to nurse Jocelyn. Praise the Lord that I was able to do so!

I left the kids with Lee for a girls’ weekend at the beach. It rocked.

I rejoiced to see some of God’s work come full circle as two girls who I led in Bible study were teachers for Jocelyn’s Sunday school class this year.

I received three IV treatments for my rheumatoid arthritis (and will get more infusions in August, October, and December). They’re helping, but I’m still in some pain every day, which serves as a sweet reminder that my soul was not made to spend eternity in this body or in this world.

I finished my first year in LAMBS (Ladies A.M. Bible Study) at our church. We studied Daniel this year, and I’m excited about our study of Revelation next year!

I’ve worked out at least two or three times a week almost every week this year.

We attended our church’s marriage retreat for the first time. And have planned to go again next year. It was wonderful, and the timing was perfect. Yay, God!

I worked 15 hours a week for Teach For America. While I’m thankful for the work I was able to do there and still value their mission, I’m also happy to say that

I resigned last week from the land of people who receive a paycheck. I am a stay-at-home momma full time now (and a grad student until December). We were blessed by the opportunities that TFA provided for me to stay connected to work against educational inequality from home and add to our savings and set my own hours, but it has been past time for me to quit for a while now.

I have not slept enough. I hope to remedy that in the second half of this year (which was one reason for the previous item on this list). So, hmm, if I want to get more sleep, perhaps I should stop blogging and get back to that paper…