Check-In and Photos

I haven't posted in awhile again because things have been really rough for us. I keep reminding myself that there are people out there with children who will never become independent. There are people with children who are deathly ill. There are people who are fleeing their home for their safety with the knowledge that they or their children may not survive the journey. I try to keep things in perspective and remind myself that the challenges we've been dealing with lately with our son aren't that difficult. But it's hard to keep the proper perspective when one is struggling so much.

We did finally have a productive meeting with the school because the principal stepped in and took over the situation. The assistant principal wasn't doing a very good job of managing the issues and communication between home and school, so I'm very grateful that we have some real help from the school now. It certainly hasn't solved every problem, but it has at least lessened the stress of feeling like we were essentially battling the school and teachers. Now if we could just figure out how to get some relief at home, then we'd really be in better shape.

I have to admit that emotionally I'm pretty raw these days. I love my son fiercely, but I'm having a hard time enjoying his company, which leads to terrible guilt. This parenting thing is tough stuff!

One good thing is that I'm still really enjoying the job I started in November. Now that my employee has returned from maternity leave I'm also feeling some level of satisfaction that I'm getting some planned things accomplished also. So although I leave home many mornings feeling pretty low, being at work helps me to feel better most of the time. I'm also trying to spend as much time as possible outside because I know myself well enough at this point to know what a balm nature is for me. The other day my mom told me I needed a spa day and I responded with, "I'd rather go for a hike."

We had a nice snow last night that covered the ground and trees beautifully, and left the roads slightly damp. That's really the best kind. I grabbed this quick photo as the sun was coming up.

This morning we also had a lovely moon over the mountains. I'm happy to report that I finally figured out why I hadn't been able to get a good shot of the moon previously; I wasn't setting the shutter speed fast enough. Now the next challenge will be to take two different exposures and then combine them with a masking layer in Photoshop so that I can show the moon and the rest of the sky/trees.

These two pictures are from my phone camera and they're not great since I took them from the parking lot when I got to work this morning. However, they do show the moon going down over the mountains and the wind and snow on the high peaks. I was wishing that I was headed up there for the day instead of in to the office, even though I enjoy it I'd still rather be hiking.

One other piece of good news is that I'm back on track for losing weight. I don't know if it will last and I'll have any real success, based on everything that's happened over the last few years. But I'm feeling motivated right now and am really going to work to keep it up so I can feel healthier and more comfortable. I really started to want to lose weight again the last time I had to trim my toenails and it was uncomfortable. Please send your good thoughts my way that I'll be able to keep that up!