Labor Day is the last day of Summer for us up in the northern parts of Minnesota.
We start school late and we get out of school late, but with our
cold, long winters we really do spend almost every moment of our long summer
days outdoors when the sun is up until 10 pm, and the kids until 11 pm.
The days we spend at the lake for 4-6 hours, and then wonder how is it 9 pm and
I am just starting dinner!
I do cherish these days being
together. As I sit here sipping coffee on the deck with my sweet man, we
smile at each other while watching the kids swinging under the big oak tree. We
must be doing something right. It's great to soak in these moments, because
life is full of so many other moments that make us feel like we are failing.
This summer has been a bit unusual;
because I have been a 100% stay at home Mom since June! Do the kids love it?
Most of the summer I made them keep up with math and reading exercises, as well
as, household duties and I was known as "Mean Mom" for about 3
minutes. When they learned the consequences of being disrespectful wasn't worth
the insult. Fast forward to last week, my first week back to work. The
complaint was, "We never see you, and you’re always working." I
have to admit it's annoyingly nice to be missed. Can't they miss me without the
crying, which makes me feel guilty. Do I do that too? It certainly is a
learned behavior. Oh, I digress...
This past year has been quite
the wild roller coaster ride with not only ups and downs but an upside
down spiral or two. For the past three years I have been helping my
beautiful Mom live through the end of her life with cirrhosis. My Mom past away
on the last day of November, and I am not ready to share my struggles but in
essence I lost 2 parents in one month. We've had some other family struggles,
but with that it helps us remember what type of people we are (empathetic and kind). Not all battles are worth
the fight, so it’s not that we lost but that change is good, and we need healthy growth.
Together we have strength to hold each other up, and at the very least that we
can rest our heads on the shoulders of our loved ones as we shed a few tears together.
Through it all I am filling my cup, and I hope that you are filling up your cup. I am filling with God, love, kids, family,
friends, hugs & kisses... bulletproof coffee. When I take time to fill my
cup and it can run over with enough to fill the cups of others.
