What a beautiful day!
I hope it was a sunshine-filled day where you are too. We’ve had our fair share of cloudy/cold/gray/rainy days, and I love those too, to be quite honest, but today the sunshine and blue skies just suited.
It’s been a day of taking care of business. (More cleaning out of things that belonged to those I love. Today it wasn’t as hard as it has been, and that tells me I can do this. It’s not easy, it’s not fun, but it’s doable. Which is good, because it has to be done eventually.)
It has also been a day of laughter.
My sister Mess Cat and her little guy Shaker mixed in with this crew?
A blast.
While my Fella and Leroy were hauling the heavy things from over yonder back to the house, we watched the children.
Ahem.
Well, we did.
And we talked about silly things like TV shows and things our children have been up to. We talked about serious things like worries and the like. And we talked about books we have been reading.
Mess Cat and I both LOVE books. We both love to read. Over the years we’ve shared many a good book back and forth and enjoyed talking about them. (Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor, I’m especially looking at you. #tearsofsorrowandjoy )
Hey, Mess Cat, I think we’ve had our own little book club going and didn’t even know it.
But that was before.
Before the heartbreak and pain and grief.
It was interesting and somewhat comforting to me today when Mess Cat said that she really hasn’t been reading like she used to.
I was worried it was only me.
And since she’s making a concentrated effort and being intentional about picking up a book and reading it, I am encouraged. Maybe we will get back to being the avid readers we were before the grief and anxiety took over.
As we were talking, I hopped up from my Roost and found the book I picked up for a bargain price the other day. I had to buy it for the blurb on the back alone. HILARIOUS. I shared the first chapter with Mess Cat and my oldest, and we were all three laughing until tears were rolling.
Good stuff that.
I’ve missed it.
Aub said that her Psychology professor has used some of this writer’s material in her classes. I found that fascinating, so I read the author’s biography on the book jacket.
And this grabbed my attention.
I read it aloud to my sister and my firstborn, and again we laughed.
It felt so good.
Mess Cat said through the laughter, “Self-awarded!”
And then the question came that simply had to be asked.
“So what award would you give yourself if you had that power?”
We laughed some more and batted around ideas.
After much contemplation this evening, I decided I would give myself the “most likely to compliment a stranger in a checkout line, at the grocery store, or anywhere else in the general public.”
In addition to this, I also award myself, “Mama who can frustrate her children in 10 seconds flat using less than fifteen words and no body language.”
I’m just that good, y’all.
Tonight I am thankful for the laughter. For the feeling of not being alone in this journey of raising children, missing parents, cleaning house, and not reading books, I am especially grateful. I’m also happy that I could find some things about myself that were “award worthy.”
What about you? What award would you give yourself if you had that power?
(and here’s the thing–you do have that power)
So go ahead. What’s your award?
Wishing you a day of appreciating all the wonderful and quirky things about yourself. Name them. It’s a good thing to love the person you spend most of your time with. It just makes you a kinder person with everyone else.
Love to all.
I Might Need A Nap 