Friday, April 24, 2020…12:22pm
The end of week 6. It only took 42 days, but we finally found a new rhythm in our house.
Individually and collectively we all seem to be settled in to this new normal. There’s been an acceptance that we are in fact going to be in this holding pattern sort of life for the foreseeable future. We’ve seen the benefit of an adjustment to the man-child’s psychiatric medication that is allowing him to function in a calmer and more rational space than he has for several months. (For reals – maintaining medication levels in a constantly growing and hormonal teenage boy is a massive challenge!) The kids have settled in with a distance learning plan that will see them through the end of this semester. My work is beginning to take on a feel of planning for sustainability as opposed to constant catch up and reaction. My husband seems to have found a balance of being in his office and working from home. There is a flow and a rhythm to our days and week that feels comfortable and sustainable.
I finally feel like we’re making it work.
As I sit in my living room (also now my office, and my husband’s office, and the space where everything other than sleeping seems to happen), I can almost hear a calmness that has been missing. And it’s lovely. That’s not to say it’s quiet – it’s almost never quiet around here. But even in the noise of life that is 2 adults, 2 teenagers, and a polar bear sized dog living/working/co-existing in 3 bedroom house, there is the sound of calmness. Right now calm sounds like birds in my front yard, the man-child in his room talking to a friend on an online video game, the girl in the kitchen making her lunch with the soundtrack to Six playing from her phone, the dog snoring on the front porch. This morning calm sounded like my husband quietly getting ready to go into the office while the rest of us slept in a little bit. Last night calm sounded like laughter and conversation over dinner followed by the sounds of teenagers in their bedrooms while my husband and I watched a movie in the living room. These are the sounds of life right now. These are the sounds of all of us having figured out how to make this season of our family life work.
Calm and settled are audible, tangible, attainable….even in the midst chaos. We’ve found our new rhythm.
Be well my friends.
We're All A Little Broken 