A weekend that made me reflect on weekends, & a brief note about the blogging schedule...

St. Kateri brightens every day, yes?

Hi all! Before I get started, a quick note of housekeeping. The spring semester has officially started for me at work.

*insert groan here*

Yes, that's right, not only can I no longer swing my knitting bag without hitting a half dozen students walking aimlessly through the halls while checking their phones, but I arrived at the parking lot at 8:27 am and got THE LAST SPOT. That $#@! is messed up. :0 It'll die down, but in the meantime, I'm feeling mighty sorry for myself over here. I so enjoyed the holiday and winter break, and going back into the fray of the semester is not appealing to me right now. At all. Plus I have to start teaching again. I do like teaching, don't get me wrong, but once I get out of the routine, I get all rusty and anxious about it. :) So here I sit, rusty and anxious, and I have to teach in an hour.

*sigh*

Oh! But I got off track, didn't I? The whole reason I mentioned any of this is that my blogging schedule will shift just the itsiest of bits, and I wanted to let you know. Still plan on 3 posts per week, one of which will be Tea Time with Tiffany. But I usually post on Mondays, and this semester I'm just not going to be able to do that. Mondays are...*shudder* We'll just say that there is no blogging time and leave it at that. :) So I'll definitely post on Tuesday and Thursday, and then also on either Wednesday or Friday, depending on which of those works out better in a given week.

I just like to keep you posted on such things. :) And I have fun stuff to talk about this week (we need a bright spot this week, for sure). Downton Abbey mystery crafting-along! Adventures with new fitness classes! Plans for Lent! It's all coming up.

As for today, I'm just thinking about my weekend. And it was *glorious*. That's part of why I'm so sad to be back to the grind at work. *sniffle*

We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Let's see...I had dance class and rehearsal on Friday. And can I say HOW MUCH I MISSED IT?! *4 weeks had gone by since I last attended class, just given the way the holidays fell and then the funeral and our anniversary trip. AND we're learning a new group sword choreography, so many good blog-worthy stories to come, just you wait dear reader!! You should have SEEN how pleased Sword was when I pulled him out and took him to class with me. He was just about bursting with pride to accompany me while Veil stayed home stuffed into a bag with my performance shoes. :0 And Sword certainly gave my arms a good workout, I'll tell you that, ouch! But I digress, as I am wont to do. Saturday we took the kids out for breakfast and later I made a slammin' new dinner recipe of quinoa and sausage stuffed peppers. Sunday we went to Mass, ran a few errands and had friends over to watch the NFL conference championship games. All fun stuff, to be sure.

So this morning I was feeling extra melancholy. Not only am I going back to battling it out for parking spaces and ability to breathe in the hallways, but I was sad to leave Mike and the kids and part from our lovely time together.

This is all contemplation fodder for me because I remember a much different time back when Henry was 2 years old. To set the scene, we did not yet have Anne in our lives, and Mike and I had only been married for 3 years and were still fairly new to the whole parenting thing. Henry was going through the Terrible Two's, and Mike had a demanding job that he really wasn't loving (and I couldn't blame him AT ALL), and can I be honest about something? I always aim to keep it real here on Life of a Catholic Librarian. ;-) During that dark stretch of time, I would *dread* the weekends. Henry would throw epic temper tantrums that left me exhausted, we had to do ALL of the housework on the weekends because neither of us had time during the week due to work, the piles of laundry overwhelmed me just to LOOK at them, and I just felt like crying all weekend long. It was like that for quite a while. I had experienced some postpartum depression after I had Henry and I swear I didn't really go back to normal for years afterward. It was not an easy time.

Now, our kids are older and we don't have the temper tantrum issue anymore. Much. ;-) (Anne still has her moments sometimes...) I enjoy the company of my children now. I don't have that black shroud of depression hanging over my head anymore. Mike's job situation has improved immensely, and not only does he love what he does now (he's an adjunct professor of philosophy), but the flexibility of being an adjunct means that he's home during the day a lot to take care of housework, do the grocery shopping and pick up the kids, etc. Our daily "grind" isn't much of a grind anymore. And our weekends are a pleasure.

I really appreciate that now all the more given our past experience. I really, really do. It's not to say that challenges don't still come up, because of course they do, that's just part of life. But I treasure the good things that I have more now.

How about you, dear reader? Have any of you ever struggled with depression or getting through a particularly difficult time in your life? I'd love to hear about how your experience.

Tomorrow we'll be talking crafts, so if you're doing the Downton Abbey MKAL or MCAL, be ready with an update! :-)