6 years ago.

Here we are, another year older, and I’m officially 32.  It’s not old, but it feels like it, probably because I still feel like I’m in my 20’s.   Maybe it feels even stranger because when I was younger I never pictured what my thirties would look like. I never really thought about having kids, being married – any of that, and now here I am!  I’m married, I have two beautiful children, and life is pretty darn good. Yes, there are ups and downs, but that’s to be expected with life in general.  Marriage can be hard, and having kids can be hard as well.  While I’d love it if every day was fluffy bunnies and cupcakes, I’d also get sick of it after a while. That’s a lot of cuteness and sugar, you know?

We’re learning to laugh through some of the rough days, even though there are still those moments where we all drive each other crazy.  As an introvert, it can be hard to recharge when you’ve got a house full of people and animals that need/want your attention all the time. So… I can get a little feisty. It’s not a terribly attractive quality, but it is something I am working on, especially since I can see a lot of myself in Enzo and like him I quickly and easily get frustrated and irritated in the right circumstances. I try to remember that and take that into account when interacting with him.  Most of all, I want to be able to manage my own irritability because I want to have more good days (which may or may not have a quickly managed melt-down or two). More importantly, though, I want the kids to look back and remember all of the awesome days we had.

Yeah, we’re busy and there are a lot of things I want to accomplish and do right now, but I want to make family my #1 priority.  My second priority is health and wellness – I want to feel my best.  Everything else will just have to work itself in where I can.  I’m currently studying to become a certified aromatherapist, so that’s going to take up a great deal of time, but I’m hoping it’ll be beneficial to our family and our friends.  With luck, I’ll be able to do more with it down the road, and share what knowledge I gain with others.  I’m at a point where I have so little free time that I need to figure out what brings me the most joy and focus myself on those things.  One day I’ll have more free time, but for now?  I think I need to limit myself to just a couple of hobbies and put my heart and soul into them whenever I can. It’s so easy to become distracted by timewasters (like smart phones, the Internet), so I also want to try and unplug more often.  Looking back, I think I had more time for reading and other hobbies because there weren’t so many distractions (besides kids).

Maybe I’ll just hide my phone somewhere… with my memory I’d quickly forget where I put it. 😉