Unwrap the Gift

Tonight, I've been searching for that perfect picture. You know, the one that will inspire a great post or at least get me started on something.

No, I didn't find it.

But, I did spend a lot of time looking through pictures I hadn't seen in awhile. It reminded me that we've had some amazing years. Wonderful souls walking through our lives, beautiful moments, and times of complete perfection - although we didn't know it at the time.

I miss those moments. Every now and then my heart aches for them. I want to reach out and hug people from those photos. People I will never hug again this side of heaven for one reason or another. And yet, there's a little piece of joy in that ache. Joy that I even had the memory, joy in what once was - joy even in the pain of what is.

It reminds me that there is beauty and perfection in the present. There is joy in the suffering. When I look back, I won't always remember the hard, but the wonderful. Each day is a gift and I need to start unwrapping that gift.



Mark and I have enjoyed our "vacation" here at home. Unfortunately, we weren't able to head off for our week of "just us" because Mark is interviewing for jobs right now. But we were able to get a lot of time out of the house. We saw just about every movie at Alamo Drafthouse, and took lots of midnight walks - 2 things we love but don't get to do very often. It was nice. And we definitely need to make more time to spend alone this year. Date nights are important!! And worth it.

This month has been beyond stressful, but I'm just taking it one day at a time.

Corbin's physical therapy eval deserves it's own post. It kind of rattled me and hit me off guard. I'll just sum it up by saying he's getting more services included PT and additional OT. I'll write more on this later when I've gotten my bearings on this one.

My gallbladder gets removed Monday. Eek. This is good, but scary too. Not for the surgery - I don't really have the luxury of even worrying about that because I am scrabbling to make sure the kids are cared for and the family keeps functioning while I'm off my feet and Mark is interviewing.

The recovery is not too bad for the average person, but as a mom who regularly lifts 30-40 lbs of kid each day it's not going to be easy. If I had a desk job, I'd be back at it in a few days. Having kids climbing all over you and lifting them up and down is more along the lines of "heavy lifting" and that's out for at least a week. And driving is out as well until I get off the meds. I'm hoping I'm a fast healer and can get through this quickly.

It has really made me notice that I definitely live a much more active life that I admit sometimes, which is why I'm so exhausted at the end of each day! I am often trying to fit in way too much in each day, and I really need to rethink my priorities and trim back on some things once I'm feeling better.

Okay, that's it for now - not sure when I'll have time to blog again in the next week, but I'd love to hear from all of you, so I'll leave you with this:

Of course, one of the movies we saw was Eclipse, and yes I've read all the books. I don't think I'm all swoony over it, but I enjoyed them. One of the questions I kept thinking about after I finished the books was:

If I had an eternity to live, what would I do with all that time?

It's definitely an interesting question, that really got me thinking. Especially, since we do have eternity - although maybe not in these bodies, but I need to remember that this life is just part of a bigger picture in Christ and I need to stop living this life as if it ends - trying to fit in every pleasure and comfort in a race against the clock. There is no clock, there is only Him.

Touch me I'm cold, unable to control
Touch me I'm golden and wild as the wind blows
And tumbling tumbling, don't go fascination
If just for tonight darling, let's get lost
If just for tonight darling, let's get lost

Let's Get Lost - Beck and Bat for Lashes lyrics