The change is weather has been rejuvenating to my psyche. I'm so grateful for a respite from the humidity and sweat. I didn't take much advantage of the weather this weekend as I might usually. I really needed to catch up on some much needed rest. You see, lately I haven't been sleeping well. My mind has been racing with anxieties, most of them work-related. And I've been working so hard. It seems impossible to wind down. Both Elliot and Ana are mirroring my own behaviors, and by the time I've cuddled and held them to sleep, my own exhaustion dissapates and I'm wide-eyed, online, listing out the things that are keeping me up, or asking Kevin to come up with "creative solutions" to help me get to bed in the middle of the night. I've tried prayer, Aleve and Ms. Gladys' solution: wine...But the truth is, I need to take control of my thoughts and fears and worries. When I wake up, I feel sick. Sore throat. Tired. I'm sure I've got some walking version of an obscure flu or am I just crazy? Diagnoses welcome. I know, I really should go to a doctor or psychiatrist or bartender.
Saturday was a home day. Slow and easy and relaxing with a trip to the grocery and movie night for the kids. Oh, and a garage sale down the street. more on that later.
Today, I woke up feeling more alive. Ana and I spent the morning preparing for our afternoon picnic. She is growing so beautifully, and is very helpful and loving...Ana has mastered using the vegetable peeler, and sliced our cucumbers for the hummus, rolled cream cheese (that she sliced) in slices of salami, rinsed all the veggies and fruit...what a big girl she is becoming. I'm proud of my girl, and can't believe she'll be FOUR in December. Wow.
We then headed to new friend, Shokufeh's house for a pray and play group with her son, Kalani. Shokufeh (Paul and Holly's friend) is Bahai, and reached out to me in my spiritual crisis blog. The idea was that we would play and read a couple of books about God or specific virtues with the kids. Ana was so excited about a whole new set of toys to see, that it was more play than anything. And she's also got some built in "I don't want to pray" rebellion built in: no doubt from hearing my argue with my mom about Catholicism, and ideas about God. Although sometimes she really gravitates to the nightly prayer (which we do once in a blue moon)...So we got our feet wet. I'm definitely excited to try again, and was intrigued by an interfaith prayer booklet Shokufeh had with beautiful prayers from many different traditions.
After that, we picked up the boys for a picnic (packed by Ana) in the park. A do-gooder shared her enormous bag of feed (corn) for the kids to share with the ducks. They were in heaven. During our walk, we saw a man searching a small stand of trees over and over, twice. We were curious, and I thought maybe he was looking for a geo-cache, which I learned about from my friend, Chrissie. Ana and I took to looking, and found a small baggie wrapped in fabric to look like the tree in a hole. It was very exciting finding the treasure...but hard to convince Ana that the treasure was simply this bag with a piece of paper inside. Not wanting to ruin the game, I signed my name to the log (enclosed) and put it back. It felt fun and lucky. I wonder if I had a GPS if I'd be into this.
Then home for a story and a nap...we rested until about 4:45...just long enough to ruin any chance of going to bed early for school tomorrow. So I decided to get back in the kitchen with my crew (Ana and Elliot)...filled a bowl with suds for El to play, and had Ana peeling corn for the tortilla soup. I just love being in the kitchen with my kids, and fall is when I really love to cook soups...which are perfect opportunities for preschoolers to peel and cut. Georgia and Amaya joined us for hot bowls of soup topped with sour cream and cheese, and will hopefully come over tomorrow for round 2 (please come!).
This is a big week at work: Open House, and a big meeting, that may mean some exciting changes on the horizon. Let's just see if I can sleep through it.
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4 comments:
Charlie tried to get me interested in goecaching, but it wasn't until we were out west, in the middle of the forest, along a lake that I really got it. Perhaps you and Ana need to set a geocache...some have little boxes with trinkets inside, but if you take something, you have to leave something. Surely Ana would love it, or even the good ole version of a treasure hunt complete with a treasure map for all of her classmates she so kindly introduced me to.
And for that sleeping problem, I prescribe some exercise. Take care of the body and the mind, love.
I have a really good set of guided meditation CDs that I recommend to those having sleep issues. The mind and body have to wind down and sometimes a structured meditation is the only way to get there.
Geocaching! Awesome! We probably have an extra GPS if you want to try it out. I wonder if the preschoolers might get a kick out of a caching trip on the levee (there are lots of cool caches out there)??
I'm glad you guys came over, and hope we can do it again in a couple of weeks. After you left, MrMan was asking for Ana.
A friend introduced me to the idea of letterboxing a few years ago (http://www.letterboxing.org/), and since then it's been on my list of things to take up. The low tech version of geocaching.
That soup sounds good!
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