Ruth Ayres hosts a weekly celebration on her blog. I appreciate this invitation to reflect on the positives of my week.
1. We made it! I love my son so much, but seventeen days straight of 24/7 parenting with no school, no after-school club, no respite of any kind is daunting when your child comes from a trauma background AND it’s the holidays, which can be very hard for traumatized children. Either my husband or I has been with him every waking second of the day for 17 days straight except when he (occasionally) showered (what is it with tween boys seeing no need for the shower?!) or used the bathroom. It was hardcore. There were many difficult moments, but also much laughter and fun and healing too. And I have played far more Yahtzee in the past 17 days than I would have thought humanly possible. I hear dice roll in my sleep.
2. I woke up to snow! I have this fantasy that I live in the Pacific Northwest, but I think the weather there would kill me. I do miss rain (it doesn’t rain that much in South Dakota), but after four days of mostly overcast weather here, looking outside made me feel sad. It turns out that overcast is vastly improved when it’s accompanied by a few inches of fresh snow and I don’t have anywhere to go.
3. I finished my 200 book challenge! As of 11 pm on December 31, I still had two books to read. Could it be done? Thanks to graphic novels, YES! I finished my 200th book at exactly 11:59. I loved Book #199 (Matt Phelan’s gorgeous Around the World) and didn’t like Book #200 at all (Explorer: The Lost Islands) but I will at least be able to booktalk it. It has also been lovely to RELAX and read at a very leisurely pace since I’m not frantically trying to finish 12 books in 4 days.
4. We started a new holiday ritual! I’m Southern, so my holiday rituals are all about the food. I’ve had Thanksgiving and Christmas down for years, and this year I decided we need to have a New Years tradition too. New Years Eve is going to be all about appetizers for dinner. This year’s inaugural meal was very much chosen for the kid palate, as it included pigs in blankets. (Ugh. And yet also fun.) In addition to the pigs, we had spinach-artichoke dip, deviled eggs, an assortment of veggies and chips and crackers, and a wonderful cranberry cake for dessert. On New Years Day, I made hoppin john and improvised a kale dish that my son pronounced “perfect”–which means I finally nailed the Ethiopian greens dish I’ve been trying to get right for over a year now. We had grandparents over twice this week for meals and games (hello, Yahtzee!), and that was nice too.
5. I’ve binge-read my favorite kind of blog reading: annual wrap-ups, reviews, resolutions, goals, one little words, #nerdlutions, and more! I love reading everyone’s reflections on 2014 and plans for 2015 and even felt inspired to make my own #nerdlution15 this morning!
Happy New Year!
the dirigible plum 
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