Friday, January 25, 2013

Tea Party at the Soda Fountain

Maggie was invited to a small, birthday tea party last weekend.   It was at our favorite cafe/soda fountain.   The girls had their tea, fruit, and finger sandwiches, then got to eat ice cream from the fountain.   We are so blessed to have this old-fashioned soda fountain in our hometown!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Acceptance

Accepting that someone you love and depend on is gone from cancer is very, very difficult to accept.  Accepting that you will never see that person again on this earth is almost impossible. 
No doctor or medical institution can bring him back?  Impossible.
The rest of the world is going on without him in it? I don't get it.
It's been 10 months, and as the shock wears off and reality sinks in, putting these feelings into words helps to get them out of my head and out into cyber space. 
Keith loved the Serenity Prayer.  How appropriate it is for this situation.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Things are just different now...

This is going to be a post about accepting limitations in yourself. 
This is something I have been giving a great deal of thought to lately; specifically since school started again after the glorious Christmas break.  With school starting again, the girls activities and mine have proven to be nearly too much for me to handle mentally.  Things I used to do and manage now seem overwhelming.  I attribute this mostly to unwillingly becoming a single parent last March, when we lost Keith. 
It seems that having anything to do after school, such as getting Maggie to ball practice, or attending a club meeting,
takes a lot of the joy out of that day for me.  Sadie is driving and able to help play taxi driver, but being a busy high school student, she now has One Act Play practices after school twice a week, plus homework and chores at home at night. 
So, I am learning to accept that for whatever reasons, I have limitations right now on how much extra "stuff" I can take
on.  I don't understand why I get overwhelmed so easily, but then I feel sure the grief stage I am in answers a lot of that.
Will my kids turn out okay if they don't play every sport, and don't take part in every extracurricular event? Most likely.
My goal for them is to be well rounded, spiritually and emotionally.
My goal for myself this year is to realize my limitations, and that things are just different now.  Some things will get easier as our year goes on; especially if I include the word "No" in my vocabulary more often.  My goal is progress, not perfection. 

Memory Quilts

I decided before Christmas to make a memory quilt for each of the girls from their Dad's old shirts.  This is Sadie's quilt.   The center squares are cut from his shirts; the border is just some pretty fabric I thought Sadie would like.  This picture was taken just before I finished hemming the blanket binding.
Maggie's is very similar; I got both quilts ready for Christmas morning under the tree.  
The girls liked them; I think they will really appreciate them as they get older.
I also am working on one for myself.  It has been a form of therapy for me in this grief process.

Sadie's Art

Sadie has discovered her talent for art; she has inherited this from her dad and her great-grandmother Vera.
She painted this last weekend; it's a release for her.   This image is from her imagination.  She plans to paint some every weekend.  Acrylic paints are her paint of choice.   I will be investing in lots of canvas!