Joy in the Journey

Have you ever had a near death experience? I have never personally come close to death and dying, as far as I know, but I’ve had a couple instances where someone I know could possibly have lost their life. One black Friday, my mom and I were walking out of Fred Meyer’s and someone was coming very fast and not stopping and I pulled my mom out of the way of the car. He didn’t even slow down, he just kept right on driving and he really was only a few feet away from her. Same thing happened to my second child when she was only three years old at Costco. She was walking with her grandma and saw me walking across the parking lot and rushed towards me. I yelled out her name and she stopped just in time.The driver just kept driving, didn’t even stop to see if she was OK. He may not have even seen her for all I know. My oldest was three when she choked on asparagus. I put her over my knee and knocked on her back and the whole asparagus came flying out. Appar...

My kids have been giving me a run for my money lately. A few weeks ago I had my first ever EMERGENCY 911 call ever when my one year old got a ring caught in his throat! He ended up vomited it out after much gagging, sputtering, and choking all while the dispatcher asked me a million seemingly unnecessary questions (he's completely okay now). And NOW, my eldest daughter got her very first real injury!  I let my kids roller skate very briefly on the skate park at the end of a family walk. My eldest was going down a hill, tried to turn, and ended up splay-legged smashing the inside of her right need hard on the ground.  I had to support her weight and walk her back to the van because she couldn't walk by herself and extending her leg in any way was very painful for her. We ended up at Urgent Care. She was examined and then got an x-ray. During the x-ray she had to stretch out her leg and that raised her pain level significantly, she had been very brave.  As we s...

Did you know there's such a thing as Decision Paralysis? Basically, it's if you are given too many choices often we won't be able to make a decision, or at least a confident decision. Now, I have a story to tell that shows that this totally happens, at least to me.  Every year we go get a Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. We like to go to a tree farm to cut down our own tree (minus the year we went to the WOODS to get a tree... Boy, was it hard to find a good looking tree in the middle of a forest full of scrawny, snow-worn trees).  Every year, it usually goes something like this. After we get to the tree farm, full of anticipation and excitement, we head out in the midst of a field of trees. We spy one that looks good, head that direction, then see it's faults once up close and then look on to the next one. The problem is not that we don't find good trees, it's just that none are perfect and HOW TO DECIDE?? This is the tree farm we've gone ...

Last week I shared about how We Get What We Need . I want to continue on this subject of needs. What do we really need ?  When I was 2 months postpartum with my first baby, I thought that I  needed  to go back to work (waitressing during the evenings). So I did. And leaving that baby every evening was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But I thought that I  needed  to do it because my husband’s job just wasn’t enough to support us.  You would think that returning to work after I had my second would have been easier because I would have been used to it by then, but it wasn’t. In fact, I had the most postpartum depression I have ever experienced, and I attribute it to going back to work when she was only a month old. I also babysat a little boy who was between my daughters’ ages, five days a week, during that time. I had always been a hard worker, I had watched both of my parents work hard as I was growing up, and it’s just what I thought I ...

Do you sometimes get worried when you leave your child? Do you have insights into your child that others don't have? Do you know your child better than anyone else? Do you have awesome Mommy instincts? Mommy instincts? What exactly are those? Special insights and built in direction for your children, an urge to guard and protect, wisdom into what your child needs. We have a very special and unique relationship with our own children. We are their primary safety and comfort. We are a source of life for 9 months and months beyond. We are everything to them! A few months ago I took a trip only an hour away to take my eldest to a doctors appointment. My husband graciously stayed home with our younger two. Four hours later (at baby's normal feeding time), I was hit with separation anxiety! I was surprised by the intensity of it. At first I judged myself for not being able to be away from my baby... But as I question "Why am I feeling like this?" I real...