Sync has been in progress all week here, and I do believe that here, on Sunday afternoon, it is safe to say that it was hugely successful.

Tim and I have had a rough start to 2013, going all the way back to the 2012 holiday season even. Between sickness and life/work/home/money/stress craziness, it just has not been a time full of our typical blend of life zen. Rather, it has been a hard to swallow, occasionally bitter pill, literally. And as we've been grasping at happiness, it has surely been an uphill struggle. We've been having to work, HARD just to keep our heads above water, and in my silly head, I was starting to wonder if we had just taken some sort of a turn? If by some chance we'd played all of our lucky cards and life was just gonna be tough, and get tougher, from here on out? I began to equate it with being certainly IN to our 40's, parents getting a little older, kids as well. Was it perhaps time for us not to live the charmed life we've become accustomed to?

I know, sad. I know, overreactive. But you clicked and chose to read this rambling crap I write. I make no apologies.

Well, February break, a long time favorite of mine, approached, but I literally chose to have no real expectations. That, all the quote quothers say, is a good way to be. If you have no expectations you can't be disappointed. But you know, I have a hard time approaching things that way. I generally expect good in my life. And, I AM a planner. Even more troublingly, I have a DEEP SEATED inner Clark Griswold, and I do tend to build expectations into most situations. And in my life, really, overall, in all 40+ years, I have not been terribly disappointed. Still, with our luck as it has been of late, I did enter this break with a very low key vibe. I had a (small) list of things I hoped might happen, but had hardly reviewed it, had not even run it by Tim, or any of our family members, who actually factored into several things on the list. Yes, I hoped to be able to do some stuff over break, but if none of it happened, I wouldn't have been too let down.

Then Friday 2/15 hit...
and Devin's bowling team won sectionals! It was like a sea change of good fortune...good STUFF just stared to happen, and kept on happening, every day of break!

Some was small...like Saturday, we actually cleaned the whole house, together, happily. Then Sunday we celebrated Norah turning 4. Monday through Wednesday Tim and I GOT AWAY and did numerous and sundry things including fun, frolic, and home repair...and we smiled throughout. Wednesday night it was back to Lansing and out for a family dinner at Maxie's Supper Club, bathing my taste buds in the cuisine of my inner Southern girl. Thursday Mom and I shopped and I got GREAT bargains, for myself, and for the kids' upcoming birthdays.

Then, clarity to the week's purpose just about hit me in the face on Thursday night. A fairly competitive game of "Scattergories" at mom and dad's confirmed that we were undoubtedly beginning, again, to Sync. Not to mention, a great moment in "Scattergories" history occurred. Better than Barry's? Maybe not. But in the trajectory of a 20+ year relationship it surely was one for the record books. Faced with the letter M, and with the category, "Something found at the beach," Tim and I both wrote, mind you seated ACROSS the room from each other. "Marge, Large and IN CHARGE." No, not simple things like men, moms, mosquitos, mangoes, magazines, or manatees. No. Instead a character. A part of our shared history. A strange and fringe member of our long and charmed story. Good old "Marge," there, to sunscreen her daughter, hand out snacks, referee her part of the beach, but also, apparently, there in OUR collective subconscious, perhaps to remind us that we are JUST FINE. We are fully, forever, and always in Sync.

The beauty of the week continues, even to today. The week wound down, and we traveled back home. More good fortune came our way, this time in the form of FINALLY getting reimbursed some insurance money we were owed from an accident Tim had in JULY. This veritably covered any spending we had done over break, even. A cleaning out/redecorating session in Gwynn's room was successful and involved few tears from my MiniHoarder. Even the Oswego Laker Hockey team obliged us, as they had a very exciting win over Buff State to send them further into the finals. Yep, it was a really, really, REALLY good break. And you know, I think I will go back to being my "Clarky G" self, and go ahead and start to plan and prepare for our next great family adventure, to the Grand Canyon over April break. Still, this week has left me mindful. It has been a tough couple of months, but luck is fluid, and fluids find their way into the cracks. Yes, the cracks are the bad things, but they remain, sometimes, open, waiting to be refilled. Happiness comes and goes, but it is always there. Even the difficult times, turn. Every cloud DOES have its silver lining.

It's OK...good even...to have expectations...because, quite frankly, we all deserve goodness in life.
And LIFE is GOOD.

Sync IS complete.

Vision

I took a photo of Devin's trombone at Solo Fest on Saturday, because I had a vision. I knew we had a certain day ahead, and in my mind I was composing a PicStitch photo. I'd include a long shot of the 'bone, and, naturally, a blurred shot of Gwynn's basketball game. Then, I figured I'd include, alongside, a shot of our lunch at one of our favorite family watering holes, "Parker's Pub," be it Auburn or Newark, two of our "pass through towns." Their food and drink is notable and deserved a space. Yep, even before we got going in our day, I knew how I wanted to document, and that long instrument was just what I needed to fit the visual space. How odd of me to think they way, I know, but I certainly can see it as an exercise in self preservation as well. I am someone who likes a plan, and our family life these days demands far less in terms of long term vision, and far more in the way of skill in making moments out of molehills. In other words, lately, our vision seems to be day by day. Like driving at night, where even if we can only see a bit in front of us at a time, amazingly, it seems we can make the whole trip that way. It is a bit to get used to for a planner like me, but I am finding my way. My vision.

Today, Monday, is snow day two. Friday, ever so happily, we had off, due to snow. Then the PicStitched weekend was great, and busy, and not interrupted by nuisance snow at all. Monday, we woke to a blessed blanket, and it has not stopped all day long. We have accumulated, easily, a foot of snow. If you look out the window, at times, vision is obscured. The trees drip with snow. The bay seems not even to be there. At times I can't see our neighbors homes. But it doesn't matter. We are cozy, and home. There is a candle burning, and music playing, and time to read and write and rest and create and dream and think. I take it in. I am not worrying ahead, or thinking ahead, or planning ahead. I am here. Now. Under a peaceful blanket of snow, and my vision is perfectly clear.