A Brutiful Thanksgiving

We enjoyed celebrating the holidays as usual between our parents homes in Broken Arrow. We spent time with our families and friends that are like family, saw sweet cousins young and old, came to know exciting news of part of our family growing, worshiped in the church we grew up in, quietly each turned our thoughts to the empty seats at each families table of dear ones no longer with us, we watched some incredible plays in exciting games, discovered the deliciousness of a pumpkin roll, among other things.

 

We had the traditional after lunch leaf pile jumping.

 

 

 

Rhett was too little for jumping this year but that didn't damper his excitement at all about the whole deal.

 

We did our best to uphold other sacred traditions for this holiday like naps, naps and more naps. The kids are getting over colds and Rhett especially did not sleep well at all. Every night Ava would make an elaborate plan about where she wanted to sleep with her carefully made pallet on the floor and then she lasted .2 seconds before she gave that up and came to our room. So in our bed at Ryan's parents it ended up me, Ryan, Ava and Rory in a queen size bed with Rhett in the pack n' play next to it.  After feeding Rhett in the mornings I did get to sleep in a few times which was glorious and helped the nights even themselves out some but even with Rhett still up a lot last night boy was it good to sleep in our own beds.

 



 

 

We were also coming off an extended weekend of Ryan being out of town for his annual hunting trip when we left for Thanksgiving. The kids and I started colds while he was gone and to be honest I was pretty worn out. The truth about holidays during this season of family life is they are a lot more work than they use to be -Sometimes the sleep deprivation, the diaper changes, the outfit changes due to the diaper changes, bathing them, feeding them, clothing them, comforting them, loading them in the car, buckling them in the car, unloading them, unbuckling them, answering their questions, (I counted recently in one car ride, 27 questions from point A to point B) disciplining them, guiding them, playing with them, looking for  pacis, washing pacis,  making sure they brush their teeth, rocking them in the middle of the night and all other day to day parenting duties can and does get overwhelming and exhausting at times. I was definitely feeling it this week.  Even with all the work that comes with parenting young children they are of course among my greatest life blessings that I give thanks to our Heavenly Father for. I've had a great day home with them today, even with running some errands, I find things settling back in line and being more manageable. I don't have to look too far to appreciate having healthy, living children is a joy among joys. Holidays are for sure more work than they use to be but I also get to enjoy them in a richer and deeper way than ever before. When I start to get in that exhaustion funk of irritability, gratitudes seem to be the best remedy for my spirit when solid sleep is not readily available.

So Thanksgiving 2013, in the words of a favorite mommy blogger I read, you were "brutiful", part brutal - part beautiful and I am thankful for you because there will never be another one just like you and I know the hard parts will fade and the golden parts will stay.