Our long winter’s nap.
In some ways, it seems like this Winter Break has lasted a really good and long time. In others, I can’t believe it’s almost time to drop Holden off in the kiss-and-go lane in a couple mornings at school. I’ve rather liked having him home during the day these past two weeks. We’ve sped up yet slowed down. I’m not quite sure why that makes sense, but it does. I think, maybe, it’s really that we’ve squeezed more life and activity and juicy stuff into and out of our days.
I really like it that way.
And it’s kind of what I had an epiphany about during church on the weekend before Christmas. We’re highly connected at church now (ha ha), and our friends reserved/snuck us up to the front row for that service. Hank was in musical genius and technogeek heaven since he could finally see how everything hooked up and where the worship team was supposed to stand and the monitors and the people with headphones on and the set lists strewn about on stage. I was simply bracing myself with a box of Kleenex nearby for the high likelihood of being spit on by the pastor (his excitability scale sky rockets sometimes and it’s kind of like being at a Gallagher concert. Hey, don’t judge. He freely admits it.).
So anyway, back to the epiphany.
I realized that I’ve been spending a lot of time, you know really spending it, being thankful. Not wasting time, but investing time in thankfulness. This is good, great even, that I feel so thankful and stop each day, a lot, to recognize it and honor it, but it hasn’t left a lot of time to do much about it. To pay it forward. To invest as much time in doing as I am in being in that spot. I also realized that it’s time to shift that a bit and really focus on doing more and being less. I’ve got the “being” part down for now.
And we’ve been doing. This break we’ve made playdough, finger puppets, and Christmas ornaments. The boys and I have read and read and read together. There have been tracks built for trains, Lego contraptions stacked up and torn down. Hank and I have really spent some good time together almost every night (we’ve also started watching True Blood from the very beginning. Freaks me out.). Ewan has taken long 3-1/2 hour winter’s naps almost every day from playing so hard and Holden even napped one day with me (shocked me nearly to death). We’ve spent time with family and friends and each other, and my cup overflows, I tell you. And this is just the beginning, because on the advice of my husband who heard it through a friend, I just checked Holden’s school calendar and realized that he’s out of school until Wednesday.
Whew.
Glad someone’s paying attention.
Know what else I’m glad about? Seeing our friends from Oklahoma this week. Check it.
How cutie patootie are they?
And their wild and crazy hooligans, who get along with our Goldfish and Terror just fine, thank you very much.
They fit quite nicely into the chaos of our life.
I love them.
It was Superparent Hat Day.
They’re back in OK as of tonight, perched high on their hilltop in the windy, blustery acreage that they call home, surrounded by horses and owls and coyotes and a mountain bike trail built by Brad, himself.
And btw, I think I’m gonna do a 365 POD this year. Photo-of-the-day, that is. Gotta learn how to use that new lens to the best of its ability (and mine).
Until tomorrow, my frozen peeps. Stay warm out there.
