New Year: 2017

As I move into the new year with plenty of excitement planned, I think it is helpful to do the “recap” of what happened in the past year.  Shout out to Lisa Thomson for the idea!

January 2016: Began with musings on how to be a better person when embarking on this co-parenting roller-coaster ride, owning my shortcomings, and venting about frustrations.  Unfortunately, a year later, the frustrations are still present.  I hope my attitude is getting better at handling them, at least, today it is!

February 2016:  In February, I was still dealing with the passive-aggressiveness of his non-replies to scheduling swaps etc, but by the end of the month, I was embracing a stronger stance, not against my ex, but a stronger stance within myself in dealing with it all.

March 2016:  Shrimp.  And more Shrimp.  Cooked by none other than DD1 and the hubs.  Yummy!

April 2016:   I was still musing and worrying for my girls’ well-being, but a momentous occasion—stepdad and dad finally met, shook hands, and were pleasant at DD2’s end of the school year performance.

May 2016: Unfortunately, by the end of May, all pleasantries had been forgotten and I was dealing with more passive-aggressive nastiness. 

June 2016:  June brought about summer vacation, and I posted a how-to guide to dealing with when your kids are on an extended vacation with the ex.  I wasn’t as brave later in that month, but at least I was able to piece some useful information together to cope.

July/August 2016:  An awesome family vacation!  Which I didn’t get around to posting until August, lol, but it was so much fun.  I also coined the phrase “Anti-Exiety”  medication, which I was desperately in need of by the end of August, ha!

September 2016:  September marked another momentous occasion where our blended family sat together and moved from place to place together at DD2’s Back to School night.  I was humbled by the non-drama of it all, and loved that the girls could see every parent in their lives behaving with civility.

October/November 2016:  Unfortunately, the peaceful blended family front disintegrated as talks of Winter break time-sharing began at the end of October and were not finalized until December.  My DD1 was heartbroken about the election, but we’re going to participate in the Women’s March on Washington to show our solidarity (she asked me if we could do it when she learned about it) with the rest of the women in this country who are taking part all over the United States on 1/21.

December 2016:  The drama with the ex did not hamper an amazing time that we had baking cookies for Santa, and we also spent time with our Nana (hubby’s mom) over new year’s, who flew in unexpectedly (more on that soon)!

I guess one lesson I can take with me from last year is that while the co-parenting struggle is real, I can make it through in one piece. I can still show love for my daughters.  And our little blended family has taken many impressive leaps forward together.  Onward into 2017!  Let it be filled with love, joy, laughter, and blessings for all.