At year’s end, it seems time to take some stock and evaluate all that has transpired.

There was something different about this year over all the others.  I hit a mid-life cycle milestone.  Despite being worse for the wear going into the festivities, I came out the other side of it a little more comfortable with who I am, sporting a drag queen’s wig (don’t ask!) and nothing bad can come of that, right?

Yet we started off the year with a serious shock to our systems, my beloved little sleepy hometown was rocked with a world-news spectacle.  This event really began to shatter the way I looked home and left me continuously reeling from my own personal news spectacle of the year before and the related fallout.

As we forged on, I think I wanted some sense of protection from the hostile community in which we live. I focused a lot on my volunteerism and continuing to care for the ailing ePrince.    While we are still dealing with his care, we were lucky that not all of the attention was fused with a negative veneer. The ePrince found a skill and has come into his own at the pool.  I take a special sense of pride in having ferociously supported the ePrince’s decision not to see the outlaws last year because I know that we would not now be watching him chase Michael Phelps with the olympic swimmers at the local swim team were it not for his ability to throw all of his energy into that sport without the harassment that we have experienced from them in the recent past.

The lilEinstein also started the schoolyear at a new venue.  The jury is still out on how this will all work out; I have to say that I am currently watching and waiting with some concern for the longterm impact.  So far he seems to fit in really well and only time will tell if there really is a place for us in this schoolcommunity.  Unlike his last school venue, the community is very important to the function of this school. Yet despite our sharing some similar beliefs about education, we are painfully aware of being not quite like the other families there.

If our two boys were not enough to keep us busy, we took in a friend of the ePrince as well!  Much to the consternation of his biological family, it seems that the fledgling adult wants to live with our mandates in the hope of accessing some of the successes we try to opportune for our children.   Who knows how long this will last; he is experiencing a lot of bullying and pressure from his dad, cloying manipulation from his mom, and he is not used to working hard for opportunities towards his own success.  No matter how long or short his stay with us, the ManChild has become a part of this family working hard to support each other through lots of adversity.

I have remained committed to the cause of reproductive rights and spent much  space voicing my concerns over the constant politicization of private decisions.  To that end, I got back into the political game this year by taking on a  leadership role in a local pro-choice organization.   I have been extremely fortunate in this invitation and worry everyday about the future of the reproductive rights in my home state.

And if all that hasn’t kept me busy enough, I went back to work.  I got a little writing gig after I graduated this fall from my fellowship with the Center for Progressive Leadership.  My regular readers will know that being a wifey and stay-at-home-mom has never been easy for me.  Now adding the working part to my busy life is not all that it is cracked up to be.  I’m still trying to get the hang of jobbing life and it has been a rough transition for the boys.  As ever, we are trying to muck through these life changes with some humor.

Early in the year the hubby got tix for a movie premiere and I would be remiss if I did not mention the event because I think “flush toilets during civil war” is the biggest search engine draw this little blog makes!  Another noted posting is really about my eye toward 2012 with all the hopefulness and emotion of the last fateful election cycle behind us.  Although my favorite post of the year is a good book primer, it even garnered a retweet from Ms. Magazine as part of the #HERvotes blog carnival!

While the world was busying itself with the Occupy Movement, in la maison we were mostly minding ourselves.  I’ve been keeping tabs on the events and watching from afield, trying to make sense of all the changes in our lives and in the world.  The new year is scheduled to bring about many more upheavals as the ePrince prepares to graduate from high school and select an appropriate college setting for his special needs and swim talents.  On social media, he says, “When I was I kid I never understood why we celebrated graduation, now that I’m in my senior year I’m starting to see that graduating is difficult at times and should be celebrated!” That sentiment speaks of continued hope for positive changes on the wind. I just learned from a dear lovey that we are not alone in our hopefulness. Pantone selected my favorite color for 2012:

Tangerine Tango!

Otherwise known as “a spirited reddish orange, [that] continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.”  I couldn’t agree more!