What a Week

So this was the first real week of summer vacation, where Lea, Jax and I were all home together.  We kicked it off with a bang, taking a trip to Storyland with some friends.  The weather was "eh" but we had a great time.  Lots of rides, very few lines for those rides, very little fighting amongst the kids.  It really doesn't get better than that.  

(best picture ever)

I thought that we'd break up the 3.5 hour ride back by stopping at my brother-in-law's house, who is adored by the children and who has a pool in his backyard (an awesome combination, in case you're shopping for a new family.  I highly recommend it).  The weather could not have been more cooperative, and it was hot and sunny and the kids swam for hours.

While there, I checked facebook and found out that the Affordable Health Care Act was upheld.  What an amazing surprise!  I don't know what made Robert's lean the way he did, and frankly, I don't really care.  Of course my support is behind Obama, but if he loses, this is the sword to fall upon.  As of right this second the AHCA hasn't directly impacted by life, but I've spent enough time in hospitals this past year to know that worrying about health is enough worry.  Health and crippling debt is too much.  

Friday involved returning home and settling into a "normalish" routine.  Pete passed the 4th of his benchmark tests for his CFP, which is awesome!  But Friday night I got the tragic news that the son of a friend of the family had died after a long fight with complications from infections brought about by leukemia.  He was only 22.  What to say?  It's just so so wrong.  

And I've been thinking about what I wanted to say about all of this, because how does it fit together?  It's not a narrative.  It's a timeline - this happened, then this, then this, and that is a boring read.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this past week has been such a microcosm of all life.  Sometimes things go well even when it seems iffy.  Men (let's be honest, it's still mostly men) make important decisions in far off places, and sometimes they help us and sometimes they hurt.  Sometimes we rejoice and other times we threaten to move to Canada.  And I woke on this beautiful morning and prepared to take my children to the beach, thinking all the while that there is a woman who will never again hug her son, and that pain is too deep, too unbearable to fathom, and yet she is feeling it right now.  It really doesn't make sense that it all can be happening right now.  

But I'm going to stand up from writing this post and I am going to go make dinner, because that is what we do.  Get up and put one foot in front of the other when it's good, when it's great, when it's awful.  I will hug the kids a little tighter tonight and hope for another good day tomorrow, and we'll keep on keepin' on.