Peace at Last!

Life has been good recently. Coming home has not been a terrifying stress - inducing panic and once finally home and away from the stresses at work, we have been able to finally relax and just be. Its a wonderful feeling. We have been snuggling on the couch, cooking for each other more, and enjoying feeling like we can be in any part of our living space again.

Besides the lovely feeling of coming home to peace, we have been rather busy. Herman's work is shaking things up recently and he has lost his work partner to another job, so the days have been long. Last week he even had to work in the snow, poor cold man.

At school things have been chaotic and sometimes even tear- inducing, but I think that is turning around now. This week I'm taking a couple of my kids who have been working super hard to a Portland Trailblazers game as a reward, and am looking forward to it. They are super excited and one even cried when I showed him what he had managed to raise his grade to. These small triumphs are what keeps me going in this field.

Valentine's Day has come and gone, and Herman, bless his heart, tried harder this year. I got a wonderful present (an iPhone!)that I had been drooling over for a while now, and he got a little netbook to play his computer games on. We have been very happy with our new toys, and happy that once again we are reminded how important it is to tell and show each other just how much we care about, appreciate, and love each other. Sometimes it can get lost in the day to day hum drum of life and it is essential to get ourselves out of that rut and remind our spouse how much they mean to us.

With love-
The Hartmans