These days are happy days

As I tumble through these first weeks of summer, I have so many thoughts, and I don’t even know where to begin.

It is fantastic to have Maren around all day, every day.  I realize how much I’ve missed her during those short 2.5 hour days of kindergarten.  Yesterday while I folded laundry, she made a fairy house out of a shoebox.  She made her own 3D furniture out of paper, she cut holes for windows (and breathing), and it was all her own idea.  I love this kid.  She comes up with ideas like this daily.

Greta has moved into a new stage; she has developed her imagination, her communication, and her creativity.  It is awesomeness that Brad and I would like to bottle.  I love this little girl.  She’s obsessed with the purses and the small bottles of hand sanitizer.  She trots around with her purse and asks anyone who she deems worthy, “Woodju wike some hansanasizwer?”  She is so fun, and funny, at the same time.

Brad had a lot of vacation the past two weeks, and now that he is back at work this week I miss him.  The girls and I have our rhythm and routines during the day, but everything comes together when Brad is with us.  I love my family.

This summer I am breathing in God and all He has given me.  Brad and I are filling the calendar with all the fun things we have planned for this season.  I’m noticing Maren’s new freckles, and that I need to just sit and just snuggle with her every day.  It’s her love language.  When I put Greta in her crib for naptime and bedtime, she gives me a big hug and says, “I wud you Mommy.”  Then she waits for me to say, “I love you, too Greta.  See you after you sleep,” before she lays down to go to sleep.  Melts my heart.

These days are happy days.  I. Love. My. Life.

The quiet reminders of just what I have overcome are always close at hand.  I have the scars and the memories and the t-shirts that are the talismans of my cancer journey and they illuminate the blessings in my life.  I see the good things so clearly it hurts sometimes.  Above are the pictures of June 2013 (can you see the awesomeness, the happiness, the joy, the hope, the wonder?)  Below is a picture from June 2012.  It’s a shot I self-snapped in the parking lot of the oncology office for a long distance friend who wanted to see me bald because she’s a visual prayer.  I see this picture and think, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Indeed.  These days are happy days.  There but for the grace of God go I.