This is the summer of change

Everything has felt different the last year.  I have had some really big upswings and some really low down times when everything seemed impossibly overwhelming.  The last few months it has been settling some for me.  I am managing better.  Forcing myself to sit still.  Forcing myself to be alone and not working.  I am starting to do more for myself and it has been so great.  This is it, this is the summer when I finally start to re-emerge from my role as solely wife and mother, to a more well rounded and better balanced person.

Right now I am super excited about an upcoming trip up North.  On our way back we will throw a bit of caution to the wind and wing it, something I miss terribly since having children, the impromptu roadtrip.  Then when we get back we will hang around the house for three whole days and head South to get the big girls from my parent's house.  Then we are essentially on summer break and the fun begins...and I have some BIG plans.

We will go to the beach.  Maybe not all the way down to the ocean more than once or twice, but we will go play in lakes and rivers, often.  We will head into DC at least once. We will see a concert, take in a baseball game, go camping for a night. We will see our friends, we will BBQ outside and we will have a firepit so we can have loads of smores outside in the evenings.  The kids will get very dirty-and I will hose them off :)  I want us to have fun this summer, and for there to be more of a balance.  Fun doesn't mean running all over town or spending a load of cash, but we can try to do a super fun outing thing once a week and have friends around a few times a week and just hang as a family a few times too.

The other thing I am doing now is working hard on exercising and eating really, really healthy.  It is not the easiest thing, but I am still trying.  Today went well-steel cut oats and maple sugar for breakfast, some leftover curry for lunch and dinner will be lemon pepper mahi-mahi with wheatberry salad.  Ryan is also working on eating better so he will be joining me in dinner and the kids are having a much more kid friendly dinner of leftover pasta.

I feel the change, it is coming from the inside out and it feels mighty good.