Guys! It’s been, well, a minute.
Life just got busy, and hectic, and…other things have now been filling the time that my amazing husband and I used to spend getting these blog posts published. So, I’m back with a post…but I can’t tell you that I’m *BACK*–because in all honesty, my focus has been shifting.
All that aside, I’m writing today because this post has been on my heart for several weeks, and I need to put these words to “paper.”
With all that has been going on in our country, our world, life’s been rather heavy…so I’ve been working very hard to choose to focus on the small blessings that I have, right now, today, right in front of me.
A few weeks ago, it was 2-something in the morning when I heard our bedroom door creak open and then I heard a little whisper of “Mama? Is there a spot for me?” Now, technically, there wasn’t much room for this beautiful 7 year old girl of mine, but in that moment, I snatched her up and added her to the family pile. I say “pile” because Maverick, our 4 year old, still comes into our bed every night around 11. After I found a spot for Harlyn, I lay awake for a bit–literally thanking God for king size beds and the family that fits not-so-perfectly in it. At 2 am, I had somehow found a way to turn something I generally find annoying (not having enough room in my own dang bed!) into a sweet blessing, remembering that it’s hardly ever that Harlyn needs us in the night, and before long, neither will Mav.
And then a couple weeks ago, I got THE call from Mav’s school–he’d been exposed to COVID and I needed to come get him. And they’d let us know how long the quarantine would be. UGH. What about work? What about all the zillions of things we need to get done? That night, we learned that the quarantine would be not 7, not 10, but the full 14 days. So we decided to switch off days for who stayed home with Mav…and a pretty cool thing happened! I found that against all odds, I was enjoying my time home with him. Once I had accepted that this was our reality and allowed myself to not stress about missing work, I got to see Maverick in a whole new way. It’s not very often that I spend time with just him!
We spent so much time playing Superheroes, watching the Avengers, making Play-doh “cookies,” playing school, playing house, and only about a billion other exciting things. He is truly always on the move, ready to play. He did a great job on his Zoom one-hour calls with his school. He’s also just so sweet and hilarious–which of course we already knew–but it comes out so much more when it’s 1-on-1 time.
Anyway, as I try to see more of these small, beautiful blessings, I’m realizing just how many of them there are. I’ve told you about two–but there are so many more moments I’ve had recently where I’ve been able to find the blessings even in the middle of the struggles.
It can feel (to me at least) like right now there’s not much to be happy about. It can feel like life is so hard and there’s just no end in sight. It can feel intolerable, honestly. But I want to look around and still see the good stuff, the happy stuff. Let’s start looking out just a bit more for our small blessings.
