Life in normal land

Mom is home from the last dog show for awhile so we get our normal life back. I can honestly say I don't know what our normal life is. It's been awhile since we did it! I do know it involves a MOUNTAIN of laundry and 4 toilets that are calling my name and begging to be scrubbed. This week is going to involve a lot of cleaning and honey-do lists (Matt is reading this and cringing at his desk- sorry honey) but it feels good to be able to have time to do some of this stuff! When mom is out of town it is impossible to have time to do anything extra!
On another note it occurred to me the other day that it was this day last year that my husband lost his job. Got downsized- such an ugly word. I will never forget the sinking in the pit of my stomach when he gave me the news. We had no warning that it was coming, just BAM!! it's over. When I look back over the last year it is a jumble of emotions. Some of them not so good. I can recall more than one phone call to him while he was here in Ohio working and I was still in Michigan, where I was telling him I was on the edge of insanity and I didn't know if I could take it much longer. Luckily everything worked out and we are at the other end of it all now. New job, new house, new state, new schools. Lots of new stuff and it's all good so far! There were times in the thick of the mess when someone would say to me "everything happens for a reason" and I wanted to knock their teeth out. Anyone who has ever been in the middle of a crisis and been told that, knows what I mean. In the back of your head you know it has happened for a reason, but you can't clear the cobwebs enough to see what the reason is, and therefore don't want to hear about that nonsense. All I knew at the time was that my husband was unemployed, we have 3 children to feed, and it all sucked. Now I know the reason. Matt's former employer had a major crisis of their own a few months after he was let go. A crisis that would have made his job pure hell. Which in turn would have certainly made him a bear to deal with at home. Beyond that, we now live minutes away from almost all of our family, instead of hours. My kids see most their grandparents all the time instead of once a month or on holidays. That is reason enough for me. I'm thankful for the blessings that got us through to this side of the mess. Without wonderful friends and family, we'd still be hanging out in Michigan waiting for the house to sell and I would be babbling to myself and rocking in a corner of a room.