So much going on

There has been so much going on in my life, I haven't known how to write here. I can write words that summarize the basics, though I don't know how I could even begin to describe the emotions that have been involved.

December was way crazy with kid activities and commitments and illnesses, with Christmas preparations, with library work and volunteer work. My husband was busy with his father and the complexity of activity that has resulted from his step-mother's death in October, while still struggling (since September) with being very stressed-ill himself. This has involved numerous day-long driving trips, taking his dad back and forth to his old home to take care of business.

We drove the six-hours to my parents' to spend a few days over Christmas, which was really nice but would have been even better if I hadn't gotten very sick with the flu (this is a really stressful thing to happen, since my father's health is pretty precarious and we try not to visit if we are sick). I'm still trying to recover this week - I hope the coughing won't go on for too long.

And this week we are cleaning out our spare/craft room, trying to make room for my father-in-law to come and stay with us, at least for a while. He has been with my brother-in-law since Thanksgiving, and the plan is for him to spend some time with us next. The story is long and complicated and not mine to share, but he doesn't have a home anymore and it's very uncertain where he will be staying from now on, but possibly he'll be staying with us. The family communication around this issue is complex and a little scary in it's potential for hurt feelings (which are already happening).

Cleaning out my craft room has been a miracle. I have tried and failed to find the emotional and physical energy to clean this room out for years, and now we have just about done it. We have piles of boxes all over the house, as we are getting rid of "stuff" and shifting more "stuff" around. Each of our bedrooms have had to absorb storing some of the stuff that was in the craft room, at least for now. Also, my father-in-law brought me ALL his Christmas decorations, and they are piled, along with all the Christmas stuff I already had, around my dining room table until I can sort them all out and store them away. This sorting and cleaning project will be going on for a long time to come, and our house feels very small right now (even though it's not really).

Running through this busyness, my husband has had the first good potential lead on a job that he's had in a long, long time. We are waiting to hear the results of a phone interview that he had last week - please pray for us! In my understanding, it would be a wonderful, miraculous answer to prayer if he could get this job. I have no faith in my own understanding about this subject any more, but I do have some hope that it will all work out OK. Please pray for us, the timing would really be a blessing if he could get a job soon.

Well, that's the basics. I could write paragraphs and paragraphs on the emotions that have accompanied all this, but I will just say that it has been very hard. I'm hoping for an easier year in 2006.