We separated, got back together, and separated again because nothing at all changed.

It's not perfect, or even ideal, but it's an arrangement that works. Our family knit remains intact, and we're both taking care of household business as a unit.

Of the options available to this point, this is the best available option to provide the best possible quality of life for us and our two children, for the forseeable future.

Nothing homered that point home for me like this shutdown did. Our earning power has returned to where we would have been before everything went to financially, and now that we're finally in the black with some room to stretch, so to speak, we're content to keep that momentum for now.