2012 looking for some good stuff!

An entire month went by--whoosh, I know where it went....food, fun and frolicking.  I really wanted the ah of an entry in December, I will have to settle for January 1st, which is almost as cool.  So, how was your year?  If I were to look back at this year, I would say some awesome parts and some not pretty parts.  The notes are:

• My hip injury became so difficult to manage, I was not even able to swim in February.  I did not know how much change I would experience later in the year.  This lack of outlet became more difficult as the year went on.  Oh, how I would have liked to do some glorious trail runs this year.  Sigh, not to be. 
• My second was diagnosed with autism.  Not a total shocker.  He is high functioning enough, that his peers will just think of him as the odd kid.  He has a poor sense of reading emotions and people.  So, he can be very fatiguing.  He had been having problems at school and I just felt such huge relief at knowing I wasn't off.  A week later, I quietly cried in my husband's arms.  It is difficult to not imagine him being bullied in high school.  
• We made a sudden and surprising decision to move closer to my husband's parents.  It was a number of reasons.  I have LOVED walking the kids to school, running/walking the neighborhood and the cozy sense of community I feel.  We bought an older house (1915).  We made some ambitious repairs/changes.  The scope became bigger and so did the cost.  We have been living in two bedrooms for seven months now.  Everything is smaller, older.  You just can't clean out the old.  Nor can you always need just one bathroom.  We have been in a major construction zone for a long time.  It has been hard to always be serene in my life/marriage with chaos, dirt and increased debt.  Yet, I do look forward to the day when have completed the restoration and it all looks great.  The design process has been fun.
• Our trip to Europe was one of the highlights of the year.  What a joy to share my earlier experiences with my children.  I loved being lucky enough to bring my mom and make those dreams come true.  Beautiful would be an understatement.  We had so many wow moments.  I loved being with JUST my kids for such a long time.  I think of it often.  I'm especially glad to have it as my mom just had her hip replaced. 
• I started fiddling with my running style in late summer.  I started going barefoot in the park.  This may finally be a starting point.  I tried the five finger shoes.  Ahh, the old troll toe would not make that work.  But, I have a real dream to retrain my running and get back to trails by next summer.  This means winter runs at 5am.  Wheee:)

• We may be done with our four---not sure how I feel about that.  Sometimes it makes me deeply sad.  Other times, I realize we have a lot to do and I want to increase my time with my children. By that, I mean fun time not just nag or homework time.  I feel a new direction coming in my life.  I have NO sense of what that is.  But, I'm hoping it is a learning/growing opportunity coming my way!