Winter Wonderland

We've had a little snow every day here since Thanksgiving. It's been simply beautiful, and has really started to get me in the mood for the holidays.

Early morning sun behind the clouds after the snow.

Glowing snow-covered trees.

The sun on the fresh snow

Snow on the Hawthorne berries.

My in-laws' snow covered yard.

The rabbits were frolicking in the yard at 1:00 this morning (when I couldn't sleep), and left tracks as proof this morning.

We had two wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations. We were with my family on the actual day, and with my husband's family the day after. My brother-in-law and his family had traveled in and it was wonderful to see them. My nieces are growing up so fast, the oldest just turned 13; I can't hardly believe we have another teenager in the family.

They brought their cats with them on the trip, so we got to enjoy the antics of a cat named Skywalker (my youngest niece is really into Star Wars). He's a beautiful Tuxedo who loves to climb, and he didn't mind hanging out with my son.

Skywalker up high on a beam.

Skywalker lounging with my son, soaking up the attention.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On this Thanksgiving holiday, I am thankful...

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who has been my best friend and my partner for nearly 20 years, through good times and bad.
I'm thankful for our two beautiful, bright, healthy children who provide so much joy and light in our lives.
I'm thankful for all of our extended family who are always supportive and never overbearing.
I'm thankful for all my friends, near and far. Both the friends who I get to spend time with on a regular basis, and those who I keep up with on social media.
I'm thankful that we such an abundance of love and wonderful people in our lives.
I'm thankful for my new job which fits me like a glove, and all of my wonderful co-workers.
I'm thankful for our cozy home in a quiet neighborhood that keeps us warm and safe.
I'm thankful that my complaints fall into two categories: fairly inconsequential annoyances, or sadness for blessings that are no longer a part of my life. I am very fortunate that I rarely have to worry about life or death issues, unlike so many others in the world.
I'm thankful for the soft, beautiful snow that's falling on this Thanksgiving morning.
I'm thankful that I get to see my mom and my brother with his family today. I will still miss my dad at the holiday table, but that falls into the category of blessings that are no longer a part of my life; I'm grateful for the 40 years I had with him.
I'm thankful that I get to see my in-laws and my brother-in-law with his family tomorrow.
I'm thankful that my life is so full of blessings that I could make this list much, much longer.

I hope all of my readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving and are feeling as blessed as I am today!

Beautiful Sky

The sky has been absolutely stunning lately; so I had to share some of the photos.

I have yet to figure out how to take a good picture of the moon. I've read all about it on the Digital Photography School blog, and I still can't seem to do it. One of these days I'm going to tackle this! If any of my readers have any pointers I'd be open to reading them.

Relaxing Weekend

I haven't felt motivated to write much lately. Life has just been going on fairly well, but hasn't been too interesting. Which is honestly kind of nice for a change. This is the first weekend in a long time where we haven't had obligations. So I've gotten most of my weekend chores done already, instead of rushing to do so Sunday afternoon like I have been lately.

It snowed again last night and we had a beautiful sunshiny day reflecting on the snow. All of today's pictures are from my new phone camera. It's still a phone camera, but it's much nicer than the one on my old phone.

I've been doing a good job with my eating lately. I was feeling a little bit like giving up today with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, but then I ran across a blog post that made me feel like I can stick with this. I can be the hero in my own story, and keep working on this goal.

Tonight we're having a lovely sunset tonight as I write this. So I'm going to relax and enjoy the view and my family this evening since I'm ahead of the game on my chores!

Hyperbole

We were under a blizzard warning last night, which my phone kept reminding me of. This is what I awoke to this morning.

This is less snow than we got last Wednesday which was supposed to be a non-event. In defense of the meteorologists though, had the rain we got last night turned to snow earlier, we would have been buried. It sounds like south and east of the metro area got hit harder, but my disappointed son has to go to school today!

I realize that my posts have been few and far between lately. We've just been so busy lately. This weekend we attended a bridal shower for a young woman my husband taught in fourth grade (which is making me feel old). We also headed down south to celebrate my nephew's 6th birthday.

The new job has been going really well and I'm really enjoying being so much closer to home. I haven't yet figured out the most efficient way to get there and back home yet, so I'll keep working on that.

We had a beautiful sunrise yesterday morning in advance of the winter storm that moved in throughout the day.

Firsts

Today was a day of firsts. We got our first snow of the season here in Denver, and I think it was more than was originally expected at about 6 inches.

It was also the first day of my new job. This is the first job I've started in about 16 years where I didn't second guess my decision. There are about 6 people in the office who I worked with two jobs ago, and it felt almost like coming home. I think this is going to be a much better fit for me professionally.

Now I'm getting ready to go to sleep for the night. It was a good day, but it was also an exhausting day and I didn't sleep all that well because of nerves. Luckily there is a wonderful winter wind howling tonight which should lull me to sleep (and melt all the snow).

Snow, School, and Serentiy

It has been an eventful and positive couple of days. Yesterday afternoon we were finally able to meet with my son's teachers. We were able to give them the full history of his mental health issues and it seemed like most of the teachers had a new understanding about what was behind his classroom behaviors. His Language Arts teacher is just a phenomenal teacher who clearly takes her profession very seriously. According to my son, who has always hated Language Arts, she makes the lessons fun and engaging. She's also really good at using technology to communicate with parents and keep us in the loop. So I think she's going to try some new techniques with my son and because he likes her so much I think we're going to see a good result there.

My son has two Science teachers who do a job share. Because of schedules, we've only ever met the one at parent-teacher conferences, and she said she didn't have any issues with our son. The other Science teacher and the Social Studies teacher (who just recently returned from maternity leave) are both very young teachers. I don't know that either of them have much experience with issues like my son presents, but they both seem like they'll take cues from the Language Arts teacher and I think they'll see better results also. Then there's the math teacher. I don't think she's coming from a bad place, I think she's just very old-fashioned (although I think she's younger than me) and thinks that there is one way to teach math and one way to learn it, which is quietly doing exactly what she does. As someone who loves math, what I enjoy about it is solving logic puzzles and figuring out how to get to an end result, and unfortunately I think her type of teaching can kill that love and exploration of math. So we're going to look into math club so my son can continue to be exposed to math as fun. The good news is that I think she won't keep fighting him quietly sitting in class but not taking notes verbatim. I think this is just one of those teachers that my son isn't going to click with, but I'm hopeful that this class will be a little smoother for the rest of the year.

After we left the school meeting, my husband and I headed up into the mountains for a weekend getaway. I was able to really put my new Xterra through it's paces. I had to put it into 4-wheel drive to get over Vail pass, and I was extremely pleased with the decision to get a manual transmission because I could just down-shift and I barely had to touch my brakes headed downhill in the snow and ice. We're staying at a lodge outside of Edwards, and the area is just beautiful. These pictures were from our balcony this morning. I took the picture before the sun came up barefoot in my pajamas, so that one was out the balcony door but from the room. I got dressed for the others so I was actually out on the balcony.

We went for a wonderful hike on the East Lake Trail. The sky was an amazing, bright blue; it was completely silent except for the sounds of birds. We saw deer but no other people until the very end of the hike. There are several pictures below, but they were so pretty that I had to share.

I imagine this trail was beautiful in a different way between four and six weeks ago when the hillsides were probably pure gold in aspen leaves.

This weekend is exactly what I needed. I'm feeling refreshed and ready to be the mother my children need when I get back home. Facebook presented me with a good article (which still creeps me out) about celebrities with mental health issues who shared them so others wouldn't feel alone. One of the celebrities who has many of the same issues as my son is John Green. My son really likes him, so I'm hoping that when I share that with him he'll feel less alone and realize that he can still do whatever he wants in life.

I'm also really excited about starting my new job on Wednesday. I'm hopeful that it'll be a better fit and since it's in a suburban setting I'll be able to take walks in nature at lunch which always soothes my soul. So the upshot of this fairly long post is that things are looking up, and I feel better equipped to manage my life.

Roller Coaster Ride

I've never been able to handle rides that spin, but I love roller coasters, at an amusement park. When my life feels like a roller coaster ride, it's not so much fun. Things felt like they were getting better, but then they took a turn for the worse again with my son.

Winding down at work has been harder and more stressful than I ever thought it would be because I want to leave my soon-to-be-former team in a good place. But it's situational stress and I feel like I've got a handle on it and am dealing fairly well. Where I'm not doing so well is with the pervasive and sustained stress which is a result of dealing with my son's mental illness. I've reached a point where I think I'm the one who needs some help. I feel like I've been knocked down and can't get back up. Occasionally I manage to get back on my feet, but before I can get my balance, I get knocked down again. That kind of feels selfish, but it's like in the airplane when they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before you help anyone else. Right now I don't really feel like I'm much help to my son, and won't be until I take care of myself.

I looked in the mirror last night and realized that I look...old. I'm sure the stress is the primary cause of this. So I decided that if I have to look that old, I intend to at least be skinny. I'm back on track with my weight loss as of today. I'm hoping that by the time I start my new job next Wednesday my clothes will be a little more comfortable. Then by the time I attend a wedding on January 1st I'm hoping to be close to my goal weight. By the time I have to put my snow pants on again in February, I want to be at my goal weight. I think I might accomplish the weight loss this time for two reasons:

1. The last time I managed to lose all that weight was when I was really stressed out and the weight loss gave me something to control.
2. It's easier to adjust habits when we change our environments. Since I'm going to be starting a new job I'm hoping that the food triggers won't happen in the same way and that I'll be able to form new, healthier habits.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to post weekly weight updates or not. I'll think on that and provide an update at a later date.

Now to the pictures. All of these below are from my phone camera, so none of them are of really great quality. But they all tell a story of what's been happening outside recently.

This picture is of the sky while I was out for a walk, right before it started to storm and rain like crazy.

The next two pictures are from a recent afternoon walk. I loved the way the fence shadow looked and was falling on the leaves. The red tree against the bright blue sky was just so pretty that I had to share. I did not make any adjustments to that picture, those were the colors I saw on my walk.