Our Days
Wow! It has been quiet a while since I’ve blogged. I know that I will regret it one day. Well, I actually already regret it. I believe that this is my favorite phase of life as a family of four and I am not documenting our days like I should. But we are enjoying the milestones together and having a great time.
Last week I looked down at Oliver and said, "You look different! Totally different." His hair is starting to come in as a lighter shade at a much faster rate than Lucy’s ever did. He is growing so quickly.
Each day I think I should write a long post about Adventures in Food. Feeding has taken on a whole new level of meaning around here. But it wouldn’t be fair to write something without some videos to share.
We are preparing for Thanksgiving and inviting friends and family over for a post-Thanksgiving event. A few weeks ago we were at Thruway Shopping Center, which was already adorned in Christmas decorations. Lucy asked me, "Why did God skip Thanksgiving?" I told her that the owner of the shopping center skipped Thanksgiving, not God. I am not sure if that helped answer her question. But we have been mulling over that notion the last couple of weeks.
Lucy and I visited First Presbyterian a couple of Sundays ago and the message was about numbering our days. We need to celebrate the little moments because THESE are the good ol’ days. And after an incredibly stressful fall in the administrative side of my life, I turned to a week of art, writing in my journal, enjoying my children and planning to fill my house with loved ones despite the dust bunnies.
My love language is quality time, so this holiday season I am thinking about all of the people I want to spend time with and planning activities. We bought our house because it has a big kitchen and is great for entertaining. My goal is to be that lady in the neighborhood that is always having people over. Granted my son may kick you out by 7 pm. And I’m totally ignoring the leaves this year. But why wait until everything is perfect.
I’m still exhausted from all of this fall’s stress. Turns out my thyroid levels are all out of whack. I can’t decide if this is a permanent problem, a postpartum issue or being on the verge of a nervous breakdown while my blood was being drawn. Fortunately I learned that day that I did not have shingles, but a tear in the corner of my eyelid. So I’m hoping this is also a much easier temporary issue. And I feel the promise that in the coming weeks, I will have more energy.
I have a sunny new yellow journal. My run of relentless bad luck is all contained in those pages. I pushed through the items on my to-do list that I did not want to tackle. Now it feels like all of that is behind me. My tobacco rug even returned. That’s when it felt like the curse was lifted. I told Henry the other night that there was nothing on my list that I dreaded. Whew. Time to celebrate.
During a particularly stressful week in October, I fully understood the meaning of God’s grace in a way I hadn’t realized. Certainly I had felt it before, but that week I ended up having lunch with friends or a visit every day. Their presence was exactly what I needed to get my mind off the details of what felt like an overwhelming situation. Now that I write this, it was not even that BAD of an ordeal. Just stressful. But like the sermon said, I needed a break from mulling over the "if this was xyz, then life will be better."
Life is fantastic now. I’m so blessed to have a wonderful family, a cozy home and so many people I love.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Much love to you and yours.
