Word for 2013: Change

Change. That’s the first word that comes to mind to describe my life the past four months.

In early January JC and I found out we were going to be expanding our family with the addition of our first child. Along with the excitement and joy of learning we were going to become parents also came the drastic physical changes I started experiencing. Even though people could not tell I was pregnant, I was dealing with my body rapidly changing to create our baby. I was feeling nausea and fatigue on an almost daily basis.

 

Once we learned of family dynamics changing we decided that we no longer wanted to be renters. It was time to become homeowners once again. After a few months of searching, we found the house that was right for us; thus bringing along with it another change: moving.

As I’ve written about in previous posts, moving is not a new activity for me. This move brought my total up to well over 10 moves in my entire life. No matter how experienced or practiced a person is with moving, it never gets easier or any more enjoyable. Because of my pregnancy, I wasn’t able to help as much with this move. Our family who helped us were even more important to making the process successful than in the past.

Our new house.

In the midst of the move and becoming new parents JC also took on another, more important job role as Chief Meteorologist. This is something he has been hoping for and working hard to achieve at some point in his career. To see his dream finally come true was a great moment for our family. Of course with this change comes new responsibility, meaning longer working hours at times.

Research on “major life events” suggests that people should not have more than two of these events in the course of a few years to prevent a person from dealing with an overload of anxiety and stress. Right now, our family tally is up to three. All of these stressors are good and exciting things that I am extremely thankful for; however all of these life events also cause stress. We’ve handled things well, but the mommy mood swings, home renovation projects and work frustrations can get a little overwhelming at times.

Consistent and calm would be the words I would hope would describe the next year of life in the Fultz household, but I know that is not likely to happen considering a newborn will be taking residence with us soon!