Upswing-ing

The past just over a year has been a bit of a rough one. Part of it has been how we've been looking at things (I mean come on, right? we brought a brand new healthy baby home, how could it not be an amazing year?). But there have been a lot of expensive things that have happened, some with good (and really great) outcomes, but still they have been draining, both emotionally, and financially. It was a year where we often felt like we couldn't catch a break, couldn't get ahead. Starting 2014 we felt like we would be getting out of it. You know, 2013 was that year, 2014 would be better. But January had barely begun and I felt Tia's lump returning. We started looking at prices, length of recovery, and quality of life. Hard things to weigh with a level head when you are talking about the best (dog) friend you have moved across the continent with, who has been by your side for over nine years. The year had barely begun and here we were right back into the heavy stuff.

We have a couple people in our lives who are pretty negative, glass half empty kind of folk. In truth, they are glass three quarters empty when in truth it is likely only a quarter empty. We do our best to dampen, and outright avoid, their negativity, as it really doesn't sit well with us. But we were feeling like we were turning into that sort of people. So we started trying to look on the bright side. Instead of choosing between two crappy options (amputate or euthanize), we looked at it the opposite - two good options - one where a beloved, 11 year old dog would get to live out a few more months until due to cancer impeding her walking ability she would have to be put down, and the other where a beloved, 11 year old dog would be able to get a third (or would this be fourth?) chance at life as a pampered-to-the-best-of-our-current-abilities three legged dog.

Then the vet said she wasn't sure it was actually the mass coming back, that it might just be scar tissue, and that she would look at it again in two weeks and see if it had changed.

Then one of the two remaining manuscripts from my masters thesis work was accepted pending revisions.

Then the waldorf-inspired daycare that we absolutely love told us that they were going to be expanding in the next few months, and that they might have some extra spots, which would solve my 1.5 day a week dilemma at our other daycare, where it takes me 45 minutes to drive to Baby E to nurse her bottle-refusing self, which severely limits my work hours, and really eats into our time at home those days, and generally has been causing me a lot of turmoil over not being able to find the current balance between earning enough money to get the necessary bills paid and being at home with my family enough to keep everyone healthy and happy and all the chores kept up with.

And all of a sudden, on the Friday of a long week, I'm feeling all joyful and happy. Hopeful. The upswing has happened. The worm has turned. I'm sure there will still be trials and tribulations to come. There always are. But there are now enough good and positive things under our belt, that the good will hopefully keep outweighing the bad for another good long while, and we will be able to look at it all with a positive light once again. Happy day. So on this Friday, I hope you all are able to look upon your lives with that positive outlook that makes for a bright tomorrow!