Taking a Breather

Wow!  Where do I begin???

The last month and a half have been a roller coaster ride.  I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and what a tunnel it has been!

At the end of April, my Mom, Jocelyn's Grammy, had a stroke.  I admit living my whole life to this point in total denial about the day that it would become necessary to take care of my parents.  I had a baby at 40 years old.  That seems to have pushed back the timing on all the things that grown ups have to think about, I guess.


Today, is the day before I will be bringing Mom back to her home in Delaware, to once again resume her life on her own.  Yes, the recovery that she has had, from Neurological ICU, to out patient PT has been nothing less than miraculous, and she is being allowed to go home.  She won't be allowed to drive for a while yet, but she will have lots of services knocking on her front door, from Meals on Wheels, to rides to appointments and such, and her neighbors have been amazing.  She's very happy to finally be going home, and I admit to being a tish happy about going back to my denial.

But seriously, when you are growing up, you think your parents will live forever, and then as an adult, you think YOU will live forever, and of course my baby girl will live forever, right?
Now, I know that's not true.  This experience has been a good test of how my sister and I work together, what we need to do, and what we are capable of.  And I'm proud of us both.  Love you Sis!!

Oh yes!  In the middle of all this, the rest of my life has been going on.  I am about to be the "Previous" MOMS Club President, and I can't wait.  In the beginning of my tenure, I had high hopes, but at the end of my tenure, I'm glad to be free of it.  It was more work than I thought it would be, and in the end, I became discouraged at how little help and support I was given.  Hell!  It became like a job!  Why would I want that???  So the people that have taken over for me (yes 2 moms are taking over the job I did by myself), haven't participated in club activities for a year and a half, but they are gung-ho to bring the club "back to it's former glory".  It's all yours!  Knock yourself out!  I'm just happy to be free of it.  And no, I'm not bitter.  :-)

And what post would be complete without an update on my girl?

Jocelyn is currently in a week long summer camp.  She's going in the mornings for 3 hours.  Can we all say "Ahhhhhhhh...." for her Mommy?  I admit, due to the above events, I have not been able to enjoy it nearly as much as I would have liked, but I'm trying! 
Jocelyn's camp is 3 hours of outdoor fun, hiking, crafts, running around in the fresh air.  When she gets home, she's a wreck!  Tired and crabby and lumpy, but I think she's having fun, and it's a good test for the daily preschool coming up in the fall. 

And I get to my final update.  Jocelyn is signed up for preschool in the fall.  It will be a co-op preschool where I get to be involved in her day to day activities.  She will be going 4 afternoons a week for 2 1/2 hours.  Pat just asked me what I'm going to do with myself and I rattled off at least 10 things I can't wait to get to.  I will have no trouble filling my free time!

But I'm also grappling with the realization that my "baby girl" is growing up and stretching her wings.  Preschool is 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon, but full-time Kindergarten is looming in a year and three months, and I can't bear to think about it.

So I'm sure there's more to come on that.

But in the mean time, Allie and Shelby will be done with school on Friday, my Dad and Susan, AKA Pepere and Memere, are coming for a visit next week, and the week after that, we are going to visit Pat's family in PA. 
July 4th week, Jocelyn and I are flying to CT to visit Joye and her family, and then later in July, Jocelyn has two other weeks of summer camp - Ballet and Science - one week each. 

The fun never ends!   Here's hoping there's more time for blogging soon, as it seems there will certainly be more things to blog about!