Take the Joy Dare #6

 

Here I am, still counting joys! Two months down means 59 days means 177+ joys. 177+ gifts and blessings, straight from the hand of the Father. Because it means so much to me and really is a little piece of me, I'll link to this first: Say Something, a post I wrote earlier in the week. A reflection on a song that pointed my eyes to God and a reminder I need every day, that God is coming for me and requires nothing of me.

And now! This week's joys :)

1) Baby girl sitting up!

I imagine I'm not alone as a parent in this: my investment in my kids outweighs most any investment/ambition I have for myself. I don't view them as these lofty, idyllic projects, but I want for them. I want joy and peace and love. I want a good life. Mostly, I want them to know Jesus, and while in my head, I know that a journey of faith is never a painless one (be it physically, emotionally, or spiritually), in practice, I don't want them to hurt or struggle. It's harder to watch them in pain than it is for me to be in pain. With my daughter? We have fought -- she... has fought -- for everything. She fought to live. She fought to eat. She fought to sleep. She fought to grow. Right now, we're fighting for teeth (those blasted teeth). I fight alongside her, but it is her battle. I push her, but the victories are all hers.

This week? She sat up! All on her own! Her Early Intervention therapist was here for our every-other-week session and she said, "Okay, let's do this, girl!" She got her into position, sat her on her bum, pulled her arms straight, flattened out her hands, pressed them to the floor, and rocked her weight onto her palms to settle her in. My daughter looked up at me while I held her favorite sparkly flower, and her therapist began to count (as she does every time we get her into sitting position, marking and timing her skill). One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three. I expected her to fall any second; she rarely makes it past five. One thousand seven, one thousand eight. My eyes got big; I smiled up at her therapist. One thousand eleven, one thousand twelve. "Wow, baby girl, look at you go!" One thousand twenty, one thousand twenty-one. I started to cry. She was sitting. Right here, right now. We've done this one thousand twenty-one times and she has never done it before and here she does it. Her therapist loses count, starting to cheer. I'm trying my best to contain myself so as not to distract her. One thousand thirty, one thousand thirty-one. She topples over, but the victory was already won. I knew the moment would come. I knew we would get here. But I never expected it would be that day, that time, that moment. We cheered; I kept crying, so thankful and so excited for her therapist who has worked hard with us to be there to see it. Every day since then, she has sat there, once for three whole minutes! It's a miracle that I was confident we would see -- in time -- but it's no less a miracle for having happened, for continuing to happen. It is none of it guaranteed.

2) Chalk

We had a few beautiful spring-like days this past week and we took the opportunity to play with chalk! It was just as fun as I remembered :)

3) Earth Fare macaroni and cheese

During our brief stint in Greensboro, we completely fell in love with Earth Fare (grocery store) and their store brand of macaroni and cheese. Now I make a mean homemade mac 'n' cheese (if I do say so myself), but for the average dinner around here, nothing beats a box of Earth Fare's white cheddar. My husband stocked up on his last trip down and it tasty, tasty. Mmm...

4) Toddler vocabulary

My two-year-old son is gaining words every day. It is so fun to hear him put together sentences as he goes beyond just mimicking our words. Some of my current favorites?

• "tin-tle" = gentle
• "fair-ful" = careful
• "bro-pen" = broken
• "pweeping" = sleeping
• "wid" = lid
• "Gonna hap-en mommy" = What's gonna happen to mommy? (followed by me being poked with a toy)
• "tate a wittle nap" = take a little nap
• "ack nighly" = ask nicely (while vigorously signing "please")
• "oukie" = ouchie
• "pall down" = fall down (which he does often and wildly and usually on purpose)

He's also starting signing sentences! Most used? "More milk, please." Beautiful!

5) Yet another good book

I really love to read. I know it's not for everyone, but I can just lose myself in a story and I absolutely love it. I think it helps that I read fast, so it's hard for me to get bogged down. As I evaluated what I like to do and what I want to accomplish with my time and compared that with what I actually spend my time on, I realized that while my goal is to learn and read several books that I've had just lying around, my use of time reflected my desire to be a Facebook/internet expert. It helps me to remind myself, "You like to read and want to do it!" Then my use of time can reflect what I actually want to do as opposed to what I just end up finding myself doing.

The universe conspired with me. My favorite author's more recent book was available at the library, prompting me to read the second in the trilogy so I could devour the third. (The Maddaddam Triology by Margaret Atwood: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam) My dad gave me an excellent book for Christmas (This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett) that inspired me to read more of her books (The Patron Saint of Liars and Run). I'm on such a roll that I read twice as many books last month as is my goal! (My goal is one fiction and one nonfiction book each month.) Next up is a biography of Bonhoeffer that I've heard is wonderful. I am thankful for the chance to work my mind, my imagination, and my heart. It is so, so good for me!

To close us off, I'll steal my favorite thing from Ann's Only the Good Stuff for this week: The Piano Guys "Let It Go/ Vivaldi's Winter" -- I have to close my eyes because it is too beautiful to hear and see all at once!

Take the Joy Dare #2

Tuning back in with this week's joys. I'm not sure I've ever done anything in my life more... Well, every time I think about it, I think about the analogy of "rose-colored glasses". If you're wearing rose-colored glasses, the whole world looks pink. Generally, people mean this to be a bad thing. Like you're brushing past all the grey sads or painting over them. But it's a perfect picture of how we see. We are all wearing glasses. We all see the world through our own minds and so often, we choose what we want to see, what we don't, and how. We can't escape this, and while we can certainly strive to examine things through different kinds of glasses, in so many ways, we are stuck with our own. This Joy Dare? Every day that I write down my joys, my gifts, counting to 1000, I'm cleaning off my glasses. I'm ever-so-slowly changing the prescription and making my view of God, of His world, of His presence in my life come more and more into focus. My glasses aren't rose-colored; they are God-colored. And once you start looking for Him? You can't stop seeing Him.

From the past week, my gifts:

1) Dancing with my daughter ("Some Nights" by Fun)

My husband had a song stuck in his head, so he pulled it up on the "tee-bee" as my two-year-old says and he turned that sucker up. I held my daughter and before I knew it, we were spinning around the living room like a couple of crazies. She couldn't hear the pulsing beat and the catchy melody, but she sure could feel my fingers digging into her back as we turned and turned. She could see the whole room moving around her, and she kept locking my eyes and belly laughing. Big, hearty, whole body laughs. It was some of the most fun either of us have ever had in our small lives. I will never forget it.

2) A dead car battery

You know how life is sometimes. Things break and require maintenance and it can be mind-bendingly frustrating. It can also be an opportunity to see blessings. My husband's car battery died in the impossible cold, and I called our garage to see if they could tow it for me. Instead, a nice man came... to our house... on his lunch break and jumped it for me. FOR FREE. He referred me to another place who installs batteries for free, asking only that I remember them if we needed work done in the future. To add to the experience, the employees at the battery place were beyond kind to my kiddos and gave me a discount on my purchase. This annoying, life-interrupting event seemed like a burden, but really? It opened up my day to some very kind, giving individuals.

3) My husband's cheerful attitude

I am the Type A and he is the Type B. I am the worrier and he is the welcomer. I am the planner and he is the free-spirit. We complement each other (and compliment each other), and it helps us grow. But one thing my husband still has on me? His cheerful attitude. It truly seems like nothing gets him dreary. He can find humor in the midst of pretty much anything, and I am so blessed by rolls and rolls of laughter from him each day. He wakes up whistling and laughs in his sleep, and I need that. I so need that.

4) Live Civil Wars (on YouTube)

Oh, man. The Civil Wars. If I could be them when I grow up, that would be a dream. We enjoyed one of their live shows as a family the other night (from the comfort of our living room) and did a lot of playing my son's pretend guitar and leaning into some tight harmonies. Beautiful. (And yes, worth an hour of your life!)

5) Meeting milestones

Our last meeting with my daughter's therapist was... well, not great. She recommended increasing the frequency of her visits. My daughter was (is) falling behind. I was feeling discouraged, but I know (because we've been here before) that it will all come in its time. So we kept on with the exercises, working on sitting up and bearing weight on her feet. I felt like I was seeing some improvements, day by day, little by little. Her therapist's visit this week confirmed that. She was so excited for my daughter, seeing her do things that just two weeks ago, she wouldn't! Victories, friends! Victories!

6) A "normal" morning

I sat at the table, eating my breakfast the other morning, when suddenly, my life just felt very normal. I'm not sure I've really felt normal in... well, at least since June. It's all been upheaval and adjustment and coordinating and busy. But there we were, the three of us, eating our breakfast at the table. And it just... it was normal. I don't normally put pictures of my kiddos on here, but this one is worth sharing:

See that? Yeah, I kinda couldn't believe it either...


If you're interested in last week's gifts, the link is here. Also, check out Ann at A Holy Experience with this Saturday's "Only the Good Stuff" (inspiration for what I'm sharing here). Lastly, I tapped out a little tribute this week to all the cornermoms out there. If you're a mom, be encouraged in your work! Til next time...