Don't get me wrong- the changes are all positive ones, and most of the disruption is temporary. My new position at work has me doing 5 days a week instead of 4, and 3 of the the past 4 weekends have been consumed by large one-time events leaving either Rachel or I alone most of the time with the kids. These things have taken precious hours, or even days out of our schedules, and yet we continue to fit all the stuff we normally do into the condensed time in between.
I feel like I do when I'm running sometimes. Fatigued, but not yet wasted. I have the energy to move on, but sitting down and resting sounds like it would be really nice. Instead of stopping though, I find a point about a half mile away and promise myself that I will give everything I have until I reach that destination. When I get there, as long as I am not dead yet, I do it again, and again, and again. I can push myself for miles in this way. It sounds horrible, I know. But when I finally do get home then I feel a much greater sense of accomplishment about what I had just finished. Looking back, the run was better for having gone on without resting, and my body is stronger as a result.
Certain parts of this analogy break down, but I think it mostly works. We are mostly living week-to-week right now, just trying to tie all the loose strings together. So far we have managed. It's not fun, but the end is in sight. Starting next week I go back down to four and a half days. Neither Rachel nor I have any major trips or events for awhile, and we still have several weeks to enjoy the beautiful Fall weather before it starts getting cold. We are on the home stretch. Just keep running.
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As for this week, the big event was Rachel's four-day trip to Seattle for a work conference. I think she had a good time learning and hanging out with other interpreters. She has decided to pursue certification in legal interpreting, which is a credential that very few interpreters are able to claim. It'll take a while, but I am sure she'll do it. As always, I am proud of her.
In the meantime, the kids and I stayed home and had a "Papa weekend." Most of the stuff we did was pretty routine- we went to different parks, we went to church, we explored some trails, and we played games at home. One thing that stood out was our trip downtown (Spokane) for a dinosaur party. The kids loved this and got to make lots of arts and crafts. They also each got their own container filled with real fossils (mostly shells and stuff). It was fun and very cool.
During the week, Evelyn had her last cross-country race of the season. True to form, she ran in jeans and a large sweatshirt, and kept her hands in her pockets the whole time. It was raining and she said she was cold. Obviously she does not have a real competitive streak in her, and she didn't even come close to winning. She had fun though, and I guess that is what matters...or something like that. On the other hand, it's called a race for a reason, and eliminating the competitive aspect of it seems to fundamentally change the nature of the event into something it was never meant to be in the first place...but hey, what are you gonna do?
One thing that Evelyn is very good at is creativity. I have included a few pictures of some of her creations. She reads a lot and she will randomly write stories or research papers in her spare time. She reminds me a lot of a little boy I once knew a long time ago.
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