1.22.2015

Peaceful January

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Two birthdays down, one to go.  My camera card is broken so all of my pictures from Grace's (first) sleepover birthday party have disappeared.  Supposedly I can recover them but we'll see.  I'll have to add that post in as soon (hopefully with pictures).  Anyway, I'm stuck with using my phone again for awhile for picture taking.

Despite all of the celebrating this month, I have also been lingering in the quiet and introspective nature that January brings.  I have been finding more time for myself, or maybe making more time for myself would be more accurate.  It still feels a little forced and clunky when I add things like "drink tea" or "write" to my daily to-do list.  But slowly my mind and body are starting to accept these tiny gifts I am folding into my day.

Grace and Ryan are both sick with high fevers and have been sleeping for two days straight.  I have been doing my best to keep the healthy ones happy (and stay healthy) while simultaneously caring for the sickies.  Yesterday Grace said she wanted to try eating some soup and I practically ran to the kitchen because well, soup for sick people is my specialty, but also (and more conveniently) I had three jars of turkey, veggie soup that I had made after Thanksgiving in the freezer (in turkey bone broth no less).  Upon opening the freezer, however, I found that all of the jars had been cracked.  I must have put them in there without cooling them long enough.  Or maybe I filled them up too high.  At any rate I did my best to create some soup out of the random findings from the nearly empty veggie bin.  We didn't have any garlic (my go to) but I did find a bag of frozen nettles at the back of the freezer from two years ago and threw a handful of the crumbling leaves into the pot (note to self- freeze more this spring, maybe now I will actually use them!).  The final result was potato, carrot, nettle soup seasoned with turmeric.  Not too bad considering my limited options.

I have been having this comforting thought lately that is completely changing the way I go about my day.  It is this: maybe this is all there is.  AND maybe all that is is just what I ordered.  What I mean is, what if all of these little bits of mundane and ordinary moments that make up my life are exactly what I came here to do.  What if when I peered down from the sea of stardust I wasn't longing to do something spectacular but instead was only yearning to immerse myself in all of the simple and wonderful things that make up the experience of being human.  Do a puzzle with a six year old.  Play hide and seek with a three year old.  Make soup for a sick child or husband.  Bring a bowl of apple cores to some hungry chickens.

This is what I am contemplating anyway, as I go about my days in this quiet month of January.

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