Light No. 11

11 weeks in?
Yikes.  That is my initial reaction.  Yet I have to stop and say wait a minute, progress is happening even if it is incremental.

A few ways I enjoyed light this week:
Right now I want to curse the wind a bit as it has made the otherwise lovely sunny weather unbearable to be out in.  Then I remembered that wind sometimes provides work for my husband which equals income and that we enjoyed flying the kite this week.  We purchased a high quality kite about ten years ago and at the time I was pretty outraged that my husband would spend $40 on a kite.  Now I realize that this kite was worth every penny and that every family should own a nice kite.  All of my children now have memories with the same ladybug kite with the tail.  I love it as well.  I have to credit my husband for looking down the road on this one.

I spent a little bit of time each day listening to things that inspire me and fill me up.  I listened to this particular sermon several times on my ipod: Children  

This serves as a good reminder to me about who I really need to be.  

I did a good job keeping my house cleaned up even though I was down and out in bed sick one day this week.  A friend of mine came over who is basically my clean house inspiration model and she told me what a great job I was doing and that my home really looked beautiful.  I have spoken that compliment back to myself many times over and it meant so much to me.  Not just because of the way my house looks but because she knows me well enough to know that it requires a great deal of effort on my part that is a sacrifice to me of other ways I much more enjoy spending my time.  She knows what my house looks like when I haven't made that effort and she knows we have a lot going on.  So I guess in essence I felt like the compliment was about ME growing and doing better and widening my capacity to handle my own life, which is a good thing.  :)

I finished a gift for a friend this week and have a very good start on a gift for another friend I am working on.  This makes me feel so good to be productive in some way.  I love giving gifts and need to do more of it, even little things.  It feels so fun to give something to someone hoping they will love it and that it will brighten their day.  

I took care of myself when I was sick.  And I was sick.  I don't usually get wiped out like that but wow I did.  So I did what I needed to do:  I stayed in bed ALL DAY.  Sure, I got up when kids needed things and fed them lunch and nursed the baby and picked up the kids from school.  But other than that I either laid in my bed or laid on the couch the entire day and really rested and let my body recover.  It was hard for me to do and every few hours that voice would creep into my head telling me that I needed to get going and get a bunch of things done.  Yet I rested and because I did I was able to really recover and stare life in the face again the following morning.  Lesson learned.  

I did have some moments, long moments, when I wanted to pack a bag and skip town.  So I could totally relate when one of my daughters tried that very thing this afternoon upon learning that I expected her to clean up her own mess that she had created in her own bedroom.  I have made sure to tell her several times throughout the remainder of the day how much I love her and how happy I am that she made the choice to come back to us.  Life is tough you know? 

So... 

happy new week!  let there be light! 

Sailing on, 

E