It seems we have fallen off the face of the earth in many ways. You don't realize all you're used to doing until you Stop. Doing. Everything. Like seriously everything. As I look back on where I was in October, I have to laugh a bit. Leanne was here and was carrying Josie down the stairs for me. She picked up a bag of trash to carry down as well. I stopped her and said, "It's okay. You don't have to carry down both. The trash can wait. Please just carry Josie."
Do you know that this means? This means that I was so incredibly exhuasted and physically unable to 'move right' that I hardly walked up and down the stairs. I also had no balance or strength so Leanne was carrying Josie for me. I was also so "not me" that I thought carrying a child AND a small bag of trash was like asking someone to pick up my car and carry it across the room. The thought of carrying BOTH at once completely overwhelmed me. Bless Leanne's heart for just smiling at me when I said that. Now I retold her this story and laughed realizing she must have thought I was crazy!
All that to say, we're getting back into normal. But you don't realize how complex normal is until you lose it. Like when Leanne moved in and we were teaching her the breakfast routine... just trying to explain the girls juice. Ellie gets cran-apple or apple juice. But we water it down. About 1/4 juice and 3/4 water. Josie on the other hand gets prune juice. Her's is watered down even more. Give her miralax and make sure she drinks all of that juice. It's important! And if she does drinik all of her juice, then give her milk. Whereas if Ellie drinks all of her juice- just give her water. WHEW! That's a lot of information and all I'm talking about is my kids juice at breakfast! I guess the mom-brain is like an insane excel document. You don't realize how complex it is until you have to pass it all on to someone else!
In September I brought both girls to MOPS with me. Getting them up, rushing through breakfast, nursing Josie, getting them dressed, loading the car, parking, walking in, taking Ellie to the bathroom and getting them settled, etc. etc. Fellow moms know the routine of getting a 2 and almost 1 year old out the door. But it was SO worth it. After 2 hours at MOPS I left feeling SO refreshed! A kid free brunch, a time to socialize with new friends, a speaker, etc.
Enter MS/Crazy Fall/Insanity
Then Decemeber I was glad to make it it to MOPS. But it invovled Leanne watching the girls {and me doing NOTHING for them all morning}. A friend picked me up and dropped me off. I got home feeling COMPLETELY exhausted. That same time with friends, kid-free brunch, and speaker was WAY too much for me. And I didn't even do a THING for anyone but myself. That illustrated so well how much I had changed. I feel like I'm normal until I do something normal and realize I'm not normal at all!
So what is normal? What is reasonable to expect? I don't know yet! But last night felt really normal and we are so grateful! We had a welcome back "Snow-cial" for our students (Sledding followed by hot chocolate and soup at our house... and lots of other food :) Thanks to our awesome EDGErs Nick and Leanne everyone who came was very blessed!
Today is the first day of the semester. Normal or not, we're grateful for a new season and to see what God does in and through us this semester!
