Saturday, January 08, 2011

Friends, Finally

If I'm being perfectly honest, I'll admit that this year, this two-thousand eleven that everyone's talking about, is not really getting along with me. We're sort of at odds, me and this year. Which is completely annoying because I love a new year. I love everything that it brings with it and I always dust off my welcome mat and say come in, new year, put your feet up and stay awhile. My insides are tickling to see what you're bringing my way. But this year, well, you've been sort of stinking up the place since you came knocking.

And I don't really like it.

Quite literally, an hour and a half before you showed up, Mr. (or is is Mrs.?) 2011, my sweet husband was taken ill and by the time the clock struck twelve, he was quite literally down for the count. And that count lasted your first full week, from Saturday to Saturday and sidelined my hubs like nothing else ever has.

Not very friendly of you, if I do say so myself.

And so with that sickness came exhaustion and fatigue and it was required of me to now do the work of two all by myself. And I'm not very good at that. And it makes me grouchy. And I find that my patience plummets, my old habits return and suddenly, I'm eating cake batter right out of the box while hiding in the pantry and snarling at my kids.

Ahem.

The whole of last week was completely off kilter because I was off kilter and that's never a good way to start anything. The schedule I'd been aching to return to after two blissful weeks of Christmas was put on hold again and I channeled my energies into survival mode. I kept up the best I could, screwed a few things up and sabotaged all attempts at putting myself back on the list and taking care of who I am.

But today, today ol' 2011, all that changed.

Because today, my husband woke up feeling healthy. And today, I skipped the pancakes and had yogurt. And today, I chose workout clothes over jammies and pounded my way back to health. And today, I had fantastic conversation with my kids. And today, I remembered who I am and everything I want to do.

We got off to a rocky start, this new year and I but it feels okay now. I know that we both had things to work out and now we're ready to meet in the middle and take charge of what's to come.
And despite this last week, 2011, I'm so happy you're here.


syusko

8 comments:

Melanie said...

Yippy for getting back to who you are!!!

GS said...

Karen, you are really a great writer!

Kelly said...

Happy New Year to you...finally!

tharker said...

I second Grandma Seattle!

I'm so glad that Brad is feeling better.

Sarah said...

Hoping this week goes much smoother for you! Maybe you got all of the bad stuff out of the way early this year!

Unknown said...

I'm so glad your year is ready to start. Sick husbands are the worst. I've been missing chatting with you, we'll have to catch up when you get back on track!

Marilyn said...

I love this post. I read it a few days ago, but forgot to comment :(

So far, my new year has been really really great. I've tried to keep a positive perspective and I know that this year will be an amazing year of growth.

I'm glad you feel the year is finally going your way!

karen★ said...

i'm so glad that 2011 is starting to look up! just so you know, i don't think the pantry is a very bad place to be! (& i'm really happy for you that your husband is feeling better!)