Photo Credit: Brennan Schloss (my 9 year old son)

The past 7 months have been challenging to say the least. It feels like there are 72 hours in a day (and not because I am kicking butt and taking names). Most days if I had a fast forward button I would press it without hesitation. But when I take a moment, sit with my thoughts, block out the chaos and dig down (way down) I can clearly see that my family is exactly where we need to be right now.

It's hard to believe that my baby is 6 years old. You know that saying, the days are long, but the years are short? Well, I've never known this to be truer then right now. Back in August my husband and I made the unexpected decision to build a new home. We sold our house in 1 day and by October the movers were packing us up and I was leaving the place where my happiness began. I thought we would be moving into our new home in March, instead I've found myself on the 3rd floor in a two bedroom apartment with two energetic boys and a puppy. It's now April and it's not likely that our house will be ready until the end of June. Sigh...

There is a reason why the events are unfolding as they are. Apartment 304 has been schooling me and tossing out a serious dose of tough love. My eyes were blind to a lot of things and ironically apartment 304 has been the light.

Although I am still longing for June, I have so much appreciation for the growth my family has gone through during this experience. I am grateful that we have a warm place to come home to. That we have each other. I am grateful that the Universe has given me the opportunity to fix the things that I didn't even know were broken. When I finally do move into our new home I will enter it with a heart full of gratitude and a new outlook on life. I will be a better mother, a better wife and better to myself.

For my son's 6th birthday he wanted to decorate his own cake, so that's what he did. It really would have been so much easier and way less of a mess if I could have just done it myself. It would have been faster and less chaotic in our tiny little space. But, oh the memories that would not have been made. The laughs we never would have experienced. The pride he never would have felt.

I still have 3 more months of intense learning and growing. 3 more months of my kids always in my personal space. 3 more months of nothing but my boy's drawings adorning the walls (wherever they see fit to hang them). 3 more months of coming up with creative ways to spend our time and as I sit here and re-read what I just wrote I think to myself, 3 months? Is that all?