Sunshine after the Rain

I needed that.

 

Two blissful days where I didn’t DO too much at all.

 

A little purge session involving the closets. Some laundry, a little dishes. Joey put some things up in the attic.

 

A lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, finger painting, hot dogs at a cute little place downtown and some ice cream.

 

A few hours in the pool with my baby boy and my amazing hubby. Yes, I called him amazing. We are doing MUCH better for the most part. One fight in the past two weeks – which was totally his fault because he was tired and crabby. No really, he said it himself.

 

An afternoon with my parents. Jellybean spent most of it saying “PEASE” and trying to convince us to keep feeding him the stash of M&M’s his Babcia has in the house. My mom cooked a 5-star dinner. Jellybean devoured the sweet cabbage she made! Jellybean adores spending time with them. I love seeing my parents take the time to sit down on the floor and play with him. His laughs, giggles and expressions. Also amazingly – Jellybean signed All Done and Thank You while we were there! Day care works on this all the time with him and I guess it finally clicked! (Or dinner was THAT good!)

 

A huge weight was off our shoulders too as we managed to get Joey’s son on a flight with my sister on Saturday. This spared him a 20 hour drive over the weekend. Instead he’ll be here at 2pm and we can ease into the weekend with him. He also will be able to do day camp at Jellybean’s day care so he’ll get to know his brother a bit better.

 

Do I seem much happier and positive? I should. We are still really struggling financially. This mess didn’t happen overnight and it won’t be solved overnight either.  I’m trying to find ways to work around it though. I’ve asked for a temporary hardship forbearance on my student loans. I stopped Auto Pay on some of my accounts so that instead of paying a $35 overdraft fee I’ll pay a $5 late fee. (PS if you mistakenly transpose the shift and the number key on that you end up with %4 – which makes zero sense. Not that I did  that.) I’m applying for better jobs left and right. Along with the rest of corporate America. Joey works overtime and side jobs all he can. I meal plan. I’m shopping at Aldi and Save-A-Lot.

 

The money though – it doesn’t stress me out as much as it use too. I know we’re trying and that it will get better. I’m happier though because we did it. We made our marriage work. It wasn’t easy. Sometimes it didn’t feel worth it. Then I would get a random email from Joey’s aunt letting me know what a great wife and mom I was and it made it easier to tough through another day. We learned to appreciate each other even when we’re stressed. I think we finally realized that we both work hard and we can either work together and get things done or fight each other on it. We aren’t happy all the time but its figuring out what is worth fighting over and being realistic about things.

 

There are more good days then bad right now. Even on a day like today where I didn’t get enough sleep, I have to go grocery shopping after work WITH Jellybean, make dinner and clean while Joey is working a side job – its all manageable.