Messy Day’s Like This

This morning my grandson and little lady brushed my hair and “made me all pretty”. How I needed this pampering on this gray cold morning. Then I was crowned “princess Mommy of all the Mommy’s in the world”, so now I write with a princess crown on my head. How did I get so lucky?

It is my focus at present to be mindful of all that I have to be grateful & thankful for. I have a tendency to naturally lean in this direction largely due to the shoes I have walked in to get to where I am today. Still, I am human and that bent towards allowing negativity or tough moments to get the best of me, is ever present.

On day’s like this, when it’s hard to grab a whole 5 minutes at time to just think, write or read, in the midst of all the messes this day is presenting,  I forget to be thankful.

I have a dear friend that has been battling various health issues and after another fall last week, is in the hospital. As I’ve sat with her and looked into her eye’s I see such tiredness and a look that say’s “I am finished. I am ready to move on.” She is in her 80’s and has lived a full life. Yet, she continues to suffer, as does her family in watching her. She is growing weaker and more fragile each day. It seems that the end of her life may be soon.

As a friend it is difficult to see any good in all of this suffering. So instead I look to the beauty before me. This dear woman of beauty, grace and honorable character has taught me much just by watching her live and now she teaches me much about the end of life as well.

I see the love between her and her husband and one could only hope to have such a strong long love as this. I see the love between her and her daughter and the beauty of their relationship. The fact that they include me in their family and treat me as so, touches me beyond words. Tears prick my eye’s just writing this.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to bring her cards that my daughter and the little’s had made for her. To see the smile and delight upon her face as she looked at each one was priceless. My children and the little’s adore her as much as I do. The last time they seen her was Halloween when I brought them to show her their costumes and I don’t know who was happier her or them.

Today I am grateful with all of my heart, to know this woman and her family. They are amazing people and I will forever be grateful for the love they have shown me and my family. Even though it’s never easy to say goodbye to someone so special, I will be thankful when we are not seeing her suffer any longer.

I wrote about our big turkey that we have hanging on our wall in my last post. I had the little’s help me cut out colorful feathers and each day we write things we are thankful on them. Then we glue them onto the turkey. Our goal is to give our turkey as many beautiful thankful feathers as we can.

I think we are doing a pretty good job so far…

We are thankful for things like…

Mostly, we are really thankful for all the people that we love and that love us, so most of the feathers are filled with names.

In teaching the little’s to have a grateful attitude it not only  seems to add a layer of appreciation to the atmosphere of our home, it is a life lesson I want to drive home to them, not just during this month of Thanksgiving but every day of the year.

As you know parenting is an endless job and when the road gets long and weary I forget to be thankful for all of this. Some day’s, like today, parenting children is quite messy & noisy, and not pretty at all. There are day’s I don’t behave my best either so I suppose we’re pretty even.

I know there are some days it seems like they are just not getting these lessons I’m trying to teach them but I know some day they will. Some day’s when I am really tired, I ask myself, “Is it worth all this work you put in?” And then I look at my now grown kids and see the grateful, appreciative, responsible, hard working, honest,giving,  kind, caring and loving people that they are now and my heart screams “Yes!”

Yes it’s all worth it…the noise, the messes, the fighting, the giving and taking of chips(the chips system is going great!), the do over's, the patience, the kissing boo boo’s over and over again, the spills, the excitement over seeing a bug or the garbage truck, the stepping on crayons, the time spent in the better choice chair and trying to cook or bake with 3 extra pairs of hands “because I want to help too”…. so I will continue to be thankful for tough messy days like this, since it seems that some of the best lessons in life are learned in the messes we make. After all, I get to do all of this with a crown on my head.

Until next time, love & hugs, Lori