Flying.

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.  ~Leonardo Da Vinci

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The last few months we have certainly been flying around here. Not the "one foot in front of the other" kind of flying, simply the "loving every second of life and cherishing life in general like never before" kind of flying. Louis has been home from Doernbechers for a little over a month now. And as beautiful as this view is,

I sure am glad that I don't have to plan on seeing it again anytime soon. 


Christmas was good. Obviously.

The girls had a great day. Lots of good presents, lots of good food, and lots of good family. After the girls were done opening presents I looked towards the back of the tree and noticed a hastily wrapped present in green paper that had "To Mommy, Love Santa" scrawled in a silver marker. I hadn't put anything under there for me so my interest was immediately perked. I glanced up and noticed Mei looking at me expectantly, so I slowly opened the paper and uncovered this:

A ripped and torn paperback book that we were currently in the middle of reading. I started to chuckle as I peered up when all of the sudden Mei pipes in with "Santa didn't leave anything for you and I didn't want you to not get a present on Christmas." Needless to say, I choked out a super quick "Thank you baby." And headed for the bedroom as quick as I could so she wouldn't see the hot tears attempting to spill over the brim of my eyes.  

LVCS hands out monthly character awards and the award for Novemeber went to courageous children. Each teacher is allowed to nominate 2 kids from their class that deserve the award, and Mei was one of those. Her resilience and acceptance of all the changes in the last few months has been simply amazing. She's had her moments, but then again we all have.


She never ceases to amaze me. Her smile, her infectious giggle, her heart that is easily ten sizes too big. She is beautiful, and wonderful, and absolutely perfect in every way. I am so in love with everything about all 3 of them. I can't wait to see them grow, transform, and evolve into the extraordinary women they will become.

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There have been a lot of changes around here recently.

I've grown and learned so much in the last year. Life isn't always what we want it to be, but it is still an amazing thing. Divorce happens, cars crash, things break, and people lose jobs and homes every day. You can sit in silence and contemplate the happenings around you, become melancholy, or even get angry. Taking it all in and still loving it is a whole different story. It's complicated, extremely difficult, and exasperating. But the end result makes all the exhaustion worth while, like flying. Silver linings, bright sides, glass half full; euphemisms aside, it all amounts to the same thing. Life is beautiful and amazing, enjoy it.


My mom always use to say, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Well around here were not sweating it, we're embracing and living the heck out of some small stuff. Bubble baths after babies go to bed, brownies with whipped cream, random trips to the mall just because we can.

 

If there is one thing in this life that I'm determined to do, it's to simply love every second I have. No questions, no anger, no exasperation. Just the sound of the wind  rushing past as I soar. I can tell you this, the view from all the way up here sure is something.