Thoughts on 2010

I promise that once I organize pictures from the holidays, I will get a nice blog post up with lots of First Christmas fun!

In the meantime, here are my thoughts on 2010:

In some ways, this has been a rough year, but in others it has been so wonderful! We obviously welcomed Jon in January. That in itself was bittersweet because I had a very anticlimactic c-section and I thought I was in some way cheated out of childbirth, but I must admit I had a completely pain free birth (the not laboring helps with that) and a very fast recovery. Jon has been such a sweet, happy baby even from the day we brought him home from the hospital. He has always been a great eater, slept through the night at 6 weeks, let us change his schedule around to meet our needs very well, meets his developmental milestones, and is in general the cutest part of my day.

I was a working mom for four months, and I must tell you that I pretty much loved it. I had a flexible job, a husband home caring for the baby, and I felt pretty balanced between 'me' time, work time, and family time. There was exhaustion and these were Jon's pre-mobile days, so that made things much easier. I lost my baby weight pretty easily with the help of Weight Watchers. That in itself was a big boost to my postpartum confidence. I gained about 70 pounds while pregnant (eek!!) and lost 75 pounds between January and August.

Jonathan graduated from the University of Memphis with his PhD in May, and we took a celebratory vacation to Disney World! Next time we go, though, I don't think we would like to have a 3 month old and 13 extended family members... I definitely needed a vacation from the vacation when we returned home.

In July, just when we had given up hope, Jonathan got a job : ) We had one month to pack up and move to Texas. I had to leave my job, my friends, my church, and my beautiful apartment.
As I have told many of you, the move has been much more difficult than I could have predicted. This is, I believe, due to so many changes at once. I had always dreamed of being a stay at home mom, but I must admit that this dream did not involve living in a rural area without any friends. The past five months have been a bit of a blur with unpacking, trying to make our little apartment into a home, trying to get a schedule for myself that hopefully involves showering at least every other day, and trying to stay positive. Library story time and our new church have pretty much saved my sanity. Although our church is small, it is made up of very genuine people and it preaches the Gospel. I never leave a service or meeting feeling like anything has been watered down or sugar coated. There are a lot of young families in the church as well, so we are getting to know people that are going through the same joys and struggles we are. As story time finished yesterday, a mom came up and started talking to me about Memphis and Ole Miss (I was wearing a Memphis Runners t-shirt) and I saw another mom that leads the Stroller Strides I went to once. Two adult conversations back-to-back in the same day!

In the midst of all of this, a very sweet couple close to us experienced the joy of a pregnancy and the devastating pain of a miscarriage in a matter of weeks. My sister and brother-in-law moved to San Diego and almost immediately were separated due to a deployment to Iraq. My friend Kara died.

One of my friends has called 2010 a character building year. I know that I have learned a lot of things about my character that I wish I didn't know; mainly that I am selfish and have a lazy streak. I like things to go my way and people to behave how I want them to behave, and if I don't have a specific task to complete, I find myself wasting time. I suppose that if I had not been through so much change this year, I would not have realized that. I would have thought that I was doing okay, when really I was just covering up those sins. I have asked God to forgive me for those specific sins and more that I do not recognize. I have asked him to replace my selfishness with selflessness and to replace my laziness with industriousness.

As we march into 2011, we face some of the same struggles and joys of 2010. Jonathan's job is only guaranteed through May, although he has confidence that he will be asked back to teach for another year. I am slowly but surely getting used to domesticity. Jon continues to grow in leaps and bounds! He is now obsessed with lights and fans. This morning he was all giggles while playing with the cat. We celebrate his birthday at the end of the month!

Thanks for reading my thoughts on 2010, and Happy 2011 : )