Thanksgiving Week

Happy Monday! 

Happy....Thanksgiving week?? What the heck?? 

I am in total denial that the holidays are here, like for real. Trees and wreaths out at Fareway, lights up on houses- wow. Are you feeling ready? Not me. I finally just ordered our Christmas cards because I should probably be sending them out soon, huh? I settled on the absolute cheapest option after waffling for weeks and not finding the perfect fit for the photos I wanted to use. I think we will be putting up our lights this weekend and trying to plan out our advent season and how we will spent the days leading up to the big day of Jesus' birth.

Holidays have never really been the same for me since Trace died and I also know some of it has been dealing with my mom's accident and the crazy way that being under that amount of worry and stress affect my view of time that makes it seem like the holidays are here without me realizing it. But some of it is just that mom is doing so awesome that I kind of feel like I have already been celebrating the holidays, just with the blessing of her good health. 

She is doing so well. So, so well. I was amazed to see her progress in just the few short days I visited with her. Every hour that went by she seemed to be acting more and more like her old self. God is good. Prayers are good. Thank you so much for everyone that has been thinking of us and sending prayers our way. They are much appreciated.

I thought I would just share a little bit of what we've been up to the last few days so you can get a feel for our journey (and for me to remember as well).

 

We ate sooo many meals in the hospital cafeteria. For the most part, they were very good meals and I am thankful for that but I was also happy to make a quick shopping trip to stock up on some things to have at my parents house while we were there. 

 

I picked up some fun activity books for Michael to work on at the hospital and he was so cute while he very intently worked on them. He kept sticking his little tongue out in the cutest way when he was concentrating hard! We also let him pick out "any toy he wanted" at Kmart to play with at the hospital and boy...that was a parenting mistake! Too many choices and eventually we had to give him a choice between three toys. Next time...I will just do a little pre-choosing for him!

 

I am also thankful that this Starbucks opened in the HyVee en route to the hospital the very week I was there visiting. Not a big deal to most, but a big deal to me! :o) Blessings come in all shapes and sizes- and flavors! 

 

Michael was so excited to visit my parents house because he had so much fun when he spent a week there this fall. He mostly wanted to play outside the whole time and we managed to squeeze a few minutes of play in here and there. He is just at such a fun age where anything and everything is exciting! Snow! A fence! The dog! A Chicken! A pile of corn! 

 

Mom was doing especially awesome right before we left on Sunday morning. It made me so happy to see her have a big smile on her face and I hope we brought her some joy and comfort while we were there. It is the absolute worst feeling in the world to know someone you love could be gone and I never want to stop being thankful for my mom's presence in my life. God is so, so good. 

So I hope you are feeling as thankful as we are this Thanksgiving week. I am excited to eat turkey and spend time with family members and only work one (!! I know!) day this week (I took off 3 days last week and was home sick with Michael today). A nice break is definitely needed.

Have a great week!