2012: That Little Dash There In Between

2012 Schuster Family (full length) vimeo.com

For as long as I can remember (or last back to my High School days) I've always loved country music.  Of course it's fun to sing along with and dance and drink to.  But I love it most for its simplicity and strength in messaging.  Celebrating the every day - or any day.  

It's most fitting that this post and our family's 2012 photo slide show* are set to country songs.  Because I don't have anything super big to report about the past 12 months, yet it feels like we've lived so much.  I watch the slideshow and can remember the moments when all of those photos were taken.  They are current enough that I can remember the words Max & Otto spoke. I can remember the expressions and sounds Wren was making.  The love (and frustration) that Joe and I were feeling during these little moments is so real still.  

But I know that I won't always be able to remember this level of detail.  And when I've forgotten the specifics of these memories, I know the song "Time Is Love" will bring back a rush of emotion.  Even though Joe wouldn't consider himself a country music fan, he likes this song too.  It speaks directly to both of us, as we're grounded in many of the same beliefs.  We work really well together and both prioritize time together as a family.  We see the greatness in ordinary moments.  

"There's two dates in time

that they'll carve on your stone

And everyone knows what they mean

What's more important is the time that is known

In that little dash there in between"

{Pushing Up Daisies; Garth Brooks}

If a dash is really just a short line.  And a line is just a lot of dots strung together.  Then the part of the dash that was made by us in 2012 was just billions of every day dots.

And 2012 was a year of trying my best to live in the moment on whichever one in a billion dots I happen to be standing upon at the present time.  Arguably, this "living in the moment" is a basic act of survival many days, rather than by consciously choosing to "live in the moment."   Doesn't matter.  It's nice.  

I can safely say it's been a really good year since I'm sad to see it go.  

As I look to 2013 I've tried to keep my resolutions simple and strong, too.

• With Joe:  Monthly time together without kids.  My new babysitter is going to think I'm crazy, because I'm tempted to pick the days for the coming year right now!
• With the kids:  More 1:1 time with each of them.  They are great together, but I don't want to miss out on the little things that I only really see when I'm spending time individually with them.
• Fitness Promiscuous: Running a little less means I'm biking, rowing, Barre-ing, CrossFitting, etc. a little more! Mix it up!
• Family Vacation:  Since Wren was born we haven't taken a "real" (flight, beach, warm-weather, etc) family vacation.  I've already bought Wren's new swimsuit for the year.  Next up, booking flights (pretty sure the swim suit shopping is more fun than the flight will be:)

Wishing everyone billions of every day dots to enjoy in the New Year!

* No idea how to get this family video embedded into my blog.  It ended up being WAY too big and won't upload, so I saved it on Vimeo and published on Facebook because I couldn't figure the blog thing out.  I guess I should have made it 20 photos rather than 200+ plus, but I couldn't bear to edit it down any further.  When I want to get a quick review of 2012 I'll pull up this video and take a walk down memory lane.