Support.

  I'm blogging from the cozy queen sized bed in my sister's guest room tonight.  Feeling sad and grateful and happy and tired and lonely and cozy.  Is it normal to feel all those emotions at once? I'm really missing Matt right now.  After a yummy dinner at my sister Lara's house everyone snuggled down to watch Willy Wonka (not the weird Johnny Depp one...) and I felt sad.  I wanted to snuggle into Matt's arm and watch it too.  Instead I snuck upstairs and caught up on the latest episode of Nashville (guilty pleasure). I'm sure it's the holidays around the corner that bring hot stinging tears to my eyes while I think about Matt lately. The past 11 years together have left me feeling like I'm not quite whole when we are apart, which has been too often this year.  This brings me to my family.....
  It's amazing how the blessings pour in and help to fill up the sadness.  The week I was preparing to leave Oklahoma and come to Lara's house I got a phone call from her.  She was letting me know Steve (her husband) wanted to fly out to Oklahoma and drive the kids and I back to their house in Utah so I wouldn't have to drive alone.  Who does that? Steve, that's who.  It was like a million pounds were lifted off of my shoulders.  I've been at Lara's for a little over a week and it has been so wonderful.  The kids have been having such a great time with their cousins and I've loved being with 2 of my sisters.
   I'm so glad my Mom was thoughtful enough to give me 4 sisters, and Daniel was thoughtful enough to add a 5th.  Living away from them makes me so sad and I have daydreams about all of us living on the same street.  There's a set of sisters in our neighborhood who built their houses next door to each other and their kids can run back and forth between their homes through their backyards.  I am secretly SUPER jealous of them.  I want that.
   I'm feeling very rambly and scattered right now.....so I guess this is the point I'm trying to make.  I'm having a hard time and really missing Matt.  However, I've been so blessed by family and friends to feel like I don't have to carry the burden alone.  Every direction I turn my life is being blessed by others.  I don't know what I've done to have so many people in my life who care about us.....but I'm grateful.

Homeschool update:
The good: my kids are so easy to teach! We have been able to come to Lara's house for a few weeks and just bring school with us.  Get our work done in the mornings and play all day! Couldn't do that if it weren't for the freedom of homeschooling.  I'm loving most of the curriculum we are using and I'm so impressed with how fast they learn.
The bad: not much to report.  It has been a slight battle to get them to do school while we are on vacation.  It's getting easier being with them so much, but still is not something I'm totally used to.
The ugly: I'm pretty sure my face wrinkles have doubled in the past 2 months.