And in other news...

I stumbled upon this blog of mine tonight remembering how I wanted to document so many life moments knowing my children would be growing up so fast.  I had to laugh that I had written exactly two blog posts in 2013. So much for documenting our life.  And now here we are in 2018 with Peaches about to graduate from high school.  She is furiously filling out college applications and dreaming of where she will attend college in the fall.  The rest of the kids are just as grown up even the baby, who isn't a baby anymore and wants her name to be Key Lime Pie.  I could have never guessed in 2013 where my life would be today.  Isn't that they way it always goes?  If we knew what was going to happen to us in the future, we might not dare to go there.

And it is exactly the hard things that make us who we are.  It is the struggle that makes us strong, the tears that teach us compassion and our suffering that makes us more Christlike.  I can't recount the pain and sadness of the last few years, but my marriage and the wonderful life that I knew is over.  It has been a long road so in some ways I am relieved.  But just as I feel a sense of peace and comfort, I feel devastated. There has been so much anger on my part toward my husband and his choices but I have decided to let that all go.  Even as I type that, I want it to be true.  It is easy to say in a moment of clarity but harder to remember when behaviors are damaging by those who claim to love.   In some ways, divorce is a death.  A death of all we knew and trusted, a death of our old life, a death of what we thought the future would hold.

Christmas was a day all spent together.  It was awkward, but I am determined not to be unkind as I hope for my children that all holidays will be celebrated together.  No dividing of parental love or time.  We opened presents, had our traditional peaches, ice cream and waffles, went to see Star Wars and then I made dinner, for all.  My cookbook club has been making recipes out of Food 52's Genius Recipes for the month of December so that where I took my inspiration.  The cookbook can be found here. 

My favorite was Salt-Crusted Potatoes with Cilantro Mojo.  I also made Perfect Pan-Seared Steaks which were tasty but more work than steak should be.  We all were filled and left satisfied even if life was a bit complicated.