josh + kati + marion

Can I just laugh at the fact that halfway through the challenge I’m having the hardest time finding joyfulness today.

Today, I’m thankful for modern medicine.

In a few hours, my step dad is going to be undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his bladder. Thankfully, caught early (like they caught this) bladder cancer is very curable and with frequent checkups, this surgery should be the end of things.

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s still pretty scary though.

Today, I’m thankful for an interruption. See, I like schedules. Well I don’t really like them, but now with a baby, they are a necessity. I have (or had) a tendency to wake up in the mornings, make coffee, jump online and before I knew it, it’s noon and the morning is gone. A toddler isn’t so accomodating and now, schedule and routine help keep us both sane and happy. My husband is particularly happy that I’ve come to embrace the routine as he is the king of scheduling. I have a tendency to be a little flighty at times, easily distracted, a knitter who loves starting projects, but isn’t exactly know for finishing them.

So the first time he heard me mention what presents I want to make for the holidays, Josh might have gentley suggested a schedule that merged my ambitions with actual abilities to complete projects. A schedule was set, a big picture was established and I have daily crafting times with which to meet my goals. It started with just nap time, but then, having already met setbacks (imagine that) craft time has started to overlap with Marion’s awake time. Mostly, she’s pretty accomodating. But um, it’s NOVEMBER already and I don’t yet have a completed project so you can see my desperation to stick to the schedule to have this all turn out and my mounting stress at each deviation from the plan, at the interruptions.

So it was Marion’s after breakfast playtime and mama’s extra thirty minutes of knitting time. But someone had other ideas when she repeatedly brought me the same book with the same request of “book book book.” She didn’t know it wasn’t in the schedule, that it would put me further behind. I knew it, but I didn’t care. Because my baby is rapidly becoming a toddler, not wanting to sit still, resisting cuddle time, wanting to be independent, and soon she’ll be pretending not to know me in public and asking for the car keys.

So I put down my needles and gathered her in my lap and spent thirty minutes reading Curious George books to her. She was calm, still, affectionate and happy to be spending time with me.

So I think that schedule needs to be revisited and probably revised. A little more shopping and a little less handmade, but with lots of spots for snuggles and books with my baby girl.

Today, I am most definetly NOT thankful for daylight savings time and the ensuing 5:30 am wakeup. I am however, very thankful for our church’s early service, the wonderful playground at Memorial Park and the children’s menu at Freebirds, all of which kept Marion sufficently entertained until she could take her nap at the “normal” time (and then slept for three hours, hallelujah and amen.)

I am also so happy that I have an amazing husband that helped smooth the transition by indulging me in a bubble bath with a trashy romance novel while he did the dinner dishes. And then he brought me hot chocolate. Joyful and thankful indeed!

Today, I am so thankful for all of the wonderful moms and dads and babies in the Heights Kids Groups Playgroup 7. This is just an awesome group of families I’ve been privledged to get to know over the past year since having Marion. It’s so awesome to have such a great group of friends with babies so close in age. I’m pretty much positive that I wouldn’t have kept my sanity without them. There’s been more than a few desperate emails, texts, and phone calls to plan meet ups when babies are fussy and patience is in short supply. We also have tons of fun together as well – swim lessons, zoo trips, library meetups, walks at the park, and attempts at drinking coffee while it’s still hot. Not to mention the playgroups themselves! To celebrate the season (and get another use out of the costumes) Marion and I hosted a Halloween playgroup today. I wish I had a group picture to share, but imagine the chaos of getting eighteen babies, eighteen moms, three dads and one grandma all in the same photo! It was crazy, but so much fun and a great kickoff to the weekend. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we were having too much fun to take pictures, so all I have are two bad cell phone pictures from before the party, but hopefully you the idea!

(PS I thought this posted from my iPhone, but it didn’t publish so it’s a day late. Sorry!)

Today I’m thankful for chicken noodle soup. And a special crochet project. And TV. And the ability to update the blog from my iPhone so I don’t have to get up from the couch.

PS – I’m not really sick sick, it’s just this darn weather has me feeling, well, under it. The high today was 83, the low tonight is 59 and the high tomorrow is 61. Please tell me how someone is supposed to stay healthy with that kind of weather?

PPS – Yes, my chicken noodle soup is mostly drained of it’s “healing” broth. Nasty stuff that broth.

I’m thankful I have a husband who is willing to baby me when I’m not feeling so well.

Today, setting goals makes me joyful and a little fearful, if I’m honest.

Goal, my first triathlon in Austin, May 16, 2010, 200 days from today!