A General Update on Everyone and Their Business

It's fall in Fairbanks. Leaves are turning yellow and dropping from the trees. Una is fully aware of this for the first time in her life and we have many conversations about the changing seasons these days. Her little friend Nolan made a collage showing an apple tree change through the four seasons and it blew her mind. So I have season collage on my list of things to make with her in the next couple days. 

Willum continues to not be super interested in real food, but pasta he'll eat, so pasta we make. And supply with my milk - he's on a white diet apparently. He is also walking around with a wagon or walker and keeping his balance for a couple seconds at a time. 

J felt inspired to get to work on his studio building so THE SHED HAS BEEN TORN DOWN. This is something we have tried to do for years, but babies, careers and travel just kept us too busy (and tired). I am very excited for him. 

I, myself, am starting my genealogy class next week and have been working on finishing a couple of books to prepare and getting ready to go to Salt Lake City for my first Association of Professional Genealogists' Professional Management Conference. I'll be gone for five days and it will be the first time I am away from my kids for that long and first time ever away from Will. It will also mean the end of nursing most likely. So I am an emotional wreck about it, but J and I agree that it will be a really good experience for us all. By that I mean that it will be a push for Will to really get into eating real food, a push for me to not micromanage and accept that my kids are okay without my 24/7 and a push for J to implement his parenting strategies, which are totally different from mine but just as great and important for the kiddos. Besides (all) that, I am in week 2 of a 6-week physical therapy program to regain my strength postpartum and build up my core muscles again. 

So to sum up, we are both working and career-stepping, we are renovating, we are our kids' full-time caretakers (except for 9 hours of preschool), we have two dogs right now, we are a couple, we tend to friends and family and they tend to us, and if it all sounds like a lot, it's cause it kind of is. Some days it seems crazy busy, but it also feels right. It feels like we are very close to finding a balance and making it all work and if we can just keep going it will be 100% worth it. As long as I accept the chaos that defines this moment in our lives, I have wonderful days filled with change, laughter and joy.