When It Rains, It Pours

That was always one of my mother’s favorite sayings, along with “hang in there” and “it is what it is” (clearly she was not one for deep and philosophical messaging).  Lately, it’s certainly been pouring  – both literally and figuratively.

We’ve had some crazy storms this week – massive winds that whipped our trees back and forth (cue Willow Smith), tossing chairs and tearing shingles off our recently inherited roof.

We’ve also experienced category 5 meltdowns by just about every person in the house (yes, yours truly included) which pop up unprovoked  and can clear just as fast as a sudden summer storm.  Our transition continues and we still haven’t quite figured out the new routine yet:  I still turn on the garbage disposal instead of the kitchen light.  We can’t figure out how to hook up the DVD player so that all movies don’t look like a Charlie Chaplin film (black and white, no sound).  I can’t figure out how to keep the cat from waking us (me) up at 4 am every day.

And O continued to have issues at school drop off – the constant rotation of new morning teachers coupled with him still being the new kid equaled a very emotional start to everyone’s day.  When he wasn’t at school, he seemed to be channeling Max from “Where the Wild Things Are”.   We all needed a break, some breathing room, some relief from the storm.

And just like that, it broke.

The rain storm brought less humidity and lower temperatures in its wake. About the same time, we started to turn things around for the better.  We went over Aunt S’s house for dinner on Wednesday (read: our old house in the old neighborhood).  An afternoon of not having to solely occupy O OR make dinner was just what we needed.  At one point, O was inside with Aunt S doing a puzzle and G and I were out of the front lawn with his new bat and ball…playing baseball by ourselves.  We had our two-person Home Run Derby going on, taking turns hitting high fly balls while the other made the play in the outfield. It was literally the most relaxed fun I’ve had in a while (not counting the wedding weekend) and for that 20 minutes, we felt like us again.

Yesterday was O’s first good drop off at school.  We’re starting to learn some of the new teachers and prep him for seeing them in the morning.  He is starting to warm up to the two older kids who get to class before him and can anticipate having breakfast with them.  As we prepared to leave him, there were moments of teary-eyed sadness but it never culminated into a downpour – our first real success.

I’m thankful that for now, it seems like the tumultuous weather is behind us. Of course, there is always the chance of a thunderstorm…both outside and inside our home.  But with the worst behind us, I think we can deal with a little rain with hopefully a lot of sunshine ahead.