For the first time in a few months, I feel like I can write again.

To be honest, I’ve had a rather large writer’s block. More like a writer’s oblisk hanging over my head. I would have tons of great ideas, but nothing would come out when I sat at the keyboard. It’s sad, in a very 2010 way. I could easily update my facebook status, and I could take photos from home and post them, but not actually write here. Go Figure. So I am trying to get back on the writing wagon. Wish me luck!

I recently read an article about parenting where children bring joy, but not happiness. This was such a timely article. Dr. Jay and I had just complained about not having time for anything outside of work and kids. It’s not that I don’t love the kids, it’s that it takes SO MUCH out of me. The article agreed. I find that living far from family has a lot to do with it. We have no nearby family. My parents can’t always watch the kids when they visit (too many surgeries this year). Jay’s parents try to, but… similar issues. Last Thursday, both girls stayed at camp overnight. It was the second time EVER since Soleil was born that we had the house to ourselves at night. Really! It was like turning back a giant clock and being in a new dimension.

I almost expected Rod Sterling to come out and start a monologue about our nightly habits and how this unfortunate couple has free time, but chose to work on a birthday cake and science instead of just relaxing. For that, my friends, is the sad truth. No wild fantasies, no party, barely time for a margarita, I went to work on Soleil’s birthday cake and Jay wanted to finish creating an extinction curve to a stellar cluster. Woot! What party animals.

We are now entering a new stage of parenting. The "my kids can wipe their own ass" phase. They are real people who occasionally shut the bathroom door. They have friends and their own lives at school and camp. They still want hugs and snuggles and stories, but they are not so much the little child hanging on my leg anymore.

The kids adjust to this fine. We’ve taken them canoeing, hiking, gold panning and whale watching this year. They are great. Now it is up to Jay and I to adjust. Let go of being needed constantly. Start to find who we are again. As people, as lovers, as humans.

And when we get there? I guarantee Soleil will hit 13 and we will have to learn new things all over again!