I haven’t meant to take a two-week vacation from my blog, life intervened without my consent. While our children have had the best December of their lives Dave and I have grappled with more than a few challenges far bigger than we were prepared to handle. While the challenges aren’t mine to share, I can share how I discovered that the Universe has a neutral indifference to our family. Really,I don’t know what I expected but we are solidly in the middle.
While budgeting out our six month plan Dave and I found a massive hole in our budget, one that would show up small on February 10th but grow to $900 by May because of car repairs we had made on interest free credit cards that would start charging interest. This budget gap was terrifying to me and I could not figure out how to close it. We live on a shoe-string budget as it is, with only enough and never extra for anything. As we debated if we had anything we could sell or cut from our budget we realized our kids might have a meager Christmas. Then we found out I won a $250 gift certificate to Toys R Us. Within a few days we received unexpected gifts from three other kind souls, gifts that totaled exactly the hole in our budget.
The universe heard our call, we were saved. I spent two days feeling like the universe had finally sent me a sign that our family’s story meant something. Then a gust of wind caught the door of our car, broke off a spring and somehow caused thousands of dollars of body damage. See? The universe is net neutral on our family.
While all this teeter-tottering for the universe was playing out we distracted ourselves with the fun parts of December, with snowball fights and Christmas caroling, with hot chocolate and gingerbread house making. In spite of everything we have spent hours debated just how Sprinkles the elf gets back to our house each day, if Santa’s skin is silver or shiny, and how we can convince Santa that he should switch to a vegetable-based diet for health reasons. We have baked plenty of treats, sang and danced every day and laughed until our faces hurt. The universe might be completely neutral on our family, but at least we aren’t neutral on each other.
I will try as hard as I can to be a better blogger in January!
Life happens, eh? Laughing till your faces hurt is a fine and dandy antidote.