Stormy with a 100% chance of Happiness

Yes, I know, long time no talk. As usual I've been crazy with deadlines plus I'm trying to plan a wedding (note that I said trying because I don't know that I've been very successful at it so far).  Then there's the work involved in melding two families together and my fiancé is selling his house (which we're all currently living in) and we're looking for a new one. And I'm trying to help my son adjust to high school and I'm trying to adjust to having a teenager...so yeah, there's just a lot of stuff happening all at once.

But despite all the craziness, these are fantastic problems to have. I have deadlines because I have work. Lots and lots of work, and it's work that I love. I'm planning a wedding because the man I love proposed. There are two families to meld because we both have wonderful children whom we love. We're looking for a new house because we're making a home together. I'm helping my son adjust to high school because he made it into a really great academic school.

As for adjusting to having a teenager? Well, anyone who has raised a truly rambunctious boy knows that just having them make it to their teenage years feels like a huge accomplishment.

When you feel like the world is pulling you in 12 different directions it's sometimes hard to remember how lucky you are. Sometimes you forget that the reason demands are being placed on you is that you are truly in demand. On both a personal and professional level I am wanted and loved.

But when I'm on several insanely tight deadline handed down to me by a few different editors and my son pulls me away from my computer because he needs help with his English homework and then twenty minutes later we all have to clear out because the realtor has arrived and she's showing the house and then my fiancé wants me to rush over to another open house because he thinks I'll like the place and I'm getting emails from wedding venues that I know I don't have time to answer and the school is sending me notes reminding me that every parent needs to volunteer X amount of hours toward the school's improvement...well, in those moments it's hard to remember that all this is good. 

And yet it really, really is. And to help remind myself of that I've tried to find little ways to give back. I've given a few dollars away to various nonprofits that I believe in.  I've helped a couple of friend's with their Kickstarter campaigns, I take the time to call friends when they have successes or set-backs in their lives (although admittedly there are times when I could be better about that).  I make my fiancé coffee every morning and bring it to him while he's going through his fifty-million emails. I find (read "create") time to occasionally take my son to a museum and yes, every once in a while I make everybody dinner.

Obviously those are all little things and they cost me a little time (which I don't have much of) and sometimes a little money (which I have enough of...but not enough to feel really secure). But these are the things that help sooth me.  It's in these little details that I'm reminded of how good everything is. I'm reminded that even though I'm in the middle of a...well sort of a storm, it's a summer storm. It's crazy but it's also exciting and spectacularly beautiful.

So yeah, I'm seriously busy right now and I'm definitely stressed.  There are times when I want the world to just stop and let me catch up.

But I'm also genuinely happy. Of all the storms I've weathered in my life this one is my  absolute favorite.