Two Weeks Down...

Honestly, I am spent.

Rhys is hovering dangerously close to a full-blown cold.  He's coughing and snotty and well, it's been getting worse.  He was coughing a good bit today.  If it continues, I'm calling it a COLD tomorrow.

I'd call it that now except Chris has the same sort of snottiness going on.  

We hear lots of folks have just a crazy runny nose right now.  Something allergy related.  There's no sore throat or fever or even general feeling bad.  Just a runny nose.

I think Rhys is coughing because he's not blowing out the gunk in his nose.

Oh, it's running down his face.  But blowing it into a tissue?  Nope.

Granted, it might have gone from allergies to cold BECAUSE he's not blowing that stuff out.  Kinda like his allergies turned into ear infections as a baby.  But, regardless, he's just not himself.

Which is to say, he's a whole lot of fussy.

Yesterday, he cried all morning long.  Then he cried all night tonight.

It's just super fun.

A couple of my friends and I met yesterday to get started on our new bible study.  Of course, week one, we spent a good deal of time just chatting.  The Introduction simply wasn't that dense.  

What do mommas talk about when they get together?  Their kids.  Specifically, we were talking about having more babies.  (One out of the three of us really wants another one.)  (I am not that one.) The discussion really centered around how hard babies make life.  

Hear me, New Mommas, a baby is hard.  And the baby makes EVERYTHING ELSE hard.  

One of us is a homeschooling momma (she's a saint).  Her youngest is two and half.  She was talking about how hard it is to teach the older boys with just him.  Adding another baby into that might make it nearly impossible.  

All I could offer was we have hard babies.  AK didn't sleep through the night, consistently, until tubes at 10 months.  Rhys ate every 90 minutes until his was four months old and then didn't sleep through the night until we started him on cereal around 7 months.  

Listen.  I barely have enough energy for Rhys.  And I'm MOSTLY sleeping through the night every night.  (See "AK's bad dreams" and "Rhys can't find _____" for reasons I miss sleep)

And let's not even bother discussing their strong-willed nature.

I mean, for real, two kiddos with the affliction blessing.  Likely a third would also be equally as blessed.

So what does that all have to do with ANYTHING?  Much less the second week of my social media time out?

During a weekend when Rhys really has me wiped, I had the chance to spend time live and in-person with other momma friends to talk it out.  Share our burdens.  Talk through strategies.  Laugh at ourselves.  And forgive ourselves.

It was intentional.

Intentional.

That has been such a pressing word on my heart this week.  

If I wanted to know how a friend's week was going, I had to be intentional about reaching out to them.

If I wanted to hear how a test went or how someone was processing a change, I had to be intentional about reaching out.

The reverse is true.  My friends had to contact me.  Ask me.  Schedule time with me.  

Intentional.

I had real conversations with real people I am in real relationships with.  Some of those live close and some live not so close.  Distance doesn't really matter.  Heart distance does.

So what I RECEIVED this week from this little time out was intentional relationship building.

What I avoided was being told from 56 various "authoritative" sources what I am doing wrong in life.  As a parent.  In my marriage.  As a Jesus-follower.  In my home.  With my health.  As a runner.  With my writing.  

Etc.

Sometimes I think my brain might explode if I read one more "10 Things to Never Say/Do to Someone Who is/has/was ______."  Like, there was an article on what not to say to the mom of a certain colored-hair child.  Seriously?  We need a list of how we can NOT offend you by mentioning the hair color of your kid?  

I can speak with authority on this because Rhys' hair is WHITE.

Considering what an absolutely bouncing ball of uncontrollable energy he is, the fact most people comment on his hair is REFRESHING.

Please and thank you for noticing his hair color.  And not the fact he just crawled under the grocery cart and then back up over the top.

Like he was a monkey.

Thank you.

THANK YOU.

I also noticed my complete lack of knowledge on what exactly I'm supposed to be angry about in the world right now.  

Has Starbucks come out what a pink Valentine's cup, for instance?  And we're upset because it's not HOT pink but BUBBLEGUM pink?  

I mean, on Friday night, we did take a moment to stare with utter dismay at videos of cats terrified...TERRIFIED...of cucumbers.

The mind reals.

And at the end of that, my question to the table was...Exactly what vital information in my brain is lost forever because I now know cats are scared of cucumbers????

Which naturally leads to the question of why I still have the phone numbers of two of my high school friends memorized?  I haven't called them, much less their parents, since high school.  

Anyway, you get what I'm saying.

The voices telling me how wrong all the things about me and my life are, all the ways I should be offended, all of the ways I can be distracted have been silenced.  

It's so nice.

Listen, I'm kinda pumped to see what happens this week.  This is starting to be such a blessing.  A relief.  Relaxing.

Like how life was BEFORE all this.

No, not really.  Because I planned entire road trips without the benefit of google maps on the driver's smart phone.  Like, I printed maps.  And directions.  On paper.  PAPER.  Can you imagine?

I can and it was as stressful as you are thinking.

But apart from THAT, life was more intentional.  More quiet.  More people telling me in person how to feel and what to be angry about and how to be a better ______.  

So am I causing anyone else to give it a try????