You guys! How are you?!? I feel like it’s been so long, and it probably hasn’t been, but time has sort of been doing this weird dragging-slash-flash-forward thing on me these last couple weeks. I think I might have mentioned how Joe hurt his arm – it was pretty bad. So that sort of tossed my life around and sucked all the energy straight from my core, you know? I am straight up exhausted, in a way I don’t remember ever being. I almost drove out of the grocery store parking lot the other day with my sun visor up in my windshield still. After wandering around the store trying to remember what I was there to find. For an hour and a half. It was a rough morning, and things are slowly getting back on track, but these are the types of scenarios I’m contending with right now.
This post isn’t about how rough my life is. The opposite, really. I KNOW it could be worse. Much, much worse. I am so grateful, and lucky, and blessed to have the life that I have – regardless of the lows. I’ve been amazed with the kindness and love we’ve been blanketed with the last couple of weeks. My husband impresses me every single day with his recovery. Those who have played caretaker to a sick loved one know how difficult it can be. Sometimes intensely. But if I sit back and really absorb what’s happening around me, my mind is blown. Here is a sort of pictorial on what life is like right now…
a nameplate project for my nephew’s and niece’s christmas presents
santa at a mentoring event over the weekend
the weather has been rainy, and although this picture does it no justice, the rain was literally purple (you know, like the Prince song??)
joe’s new “bionic arm”
short walks in the dark are about all we get these days, but they are filled with christmas lights
we finally got our little tree when a dear friend came down to visit and cheer joe up
I made a comment recently that I felt like my Christmas season was robbed from me this year. Today I realized how far from reality that statement is. I mean, if I really think about it, this wrinkle in our lives makes Christmas more real for us. The goodwill we’ve experienced from not just the people we know and love, but from total strangers, has been intense. We’ve seen so many of the people we love, simply because they love us and not because it’s a holiday. I’ve enjoyed way more Christmas lights this year, being that the only time I have to walk Jones is either before the sun comes up or after it’s set. I have my husband home to help me (well, as much as he can with one arm) and we’ve made cookies and started a nameplate project for our nephews and niece together. And after canceling a week’s worth of responsibilities, I managed to eek out a mentoring event with my sweet M, where Santa made a visit and we connected and giggled for a couple hours. We went to an adorably funny children’s Christmas play, visited with family and laughed until our stomachs hurt.
Every other year consists of trying to cram in all the iconic Christmas events I can manage. So this year is sort of refreshing, once I allowed it to be. Of course I didn’t have that attitude going into it, but I’m slowly embracing the less-is-more approach. Maybe it helps that we don’t have much of a choice. But I truly believe that you get from this life what you take from it, so I’m taking time to cherish this slower, more heartfelt Christmas. I think we needed that.
I hope you are enjoying your holiday season, whichever one(s) you celebrate. Equally, I hope your heart swells with the love and beauty in this world. I’ll check in soon, to share the rest of the Thanksgiving camping trip pictures, and for our last Wandering Eye Wednesday posts of the year. I hope you’ll forgive me for the lack of crafty posts this season. In the meantime, if I don’t get a chance to tell you later, thanks for following along on my little blog. It means a lot to me 🙂
Love and light always,
