I have a high school classmate that has a 2 year old son. He has an undiagnosed condition that lands him in the hospital quite frequently. I follow what she posts as a way to lend support from afar. I can’t imagine all that she is going through, physically and mentally. She also has two girls that are older (I think about 4 and 6). I know that she can sit there and complain how life isn’t fair. However, I don’t think I’ve heard her take a “pity me/us/him” attitude once. I know that she has her moments to break down and cry, but she wouldn’t be human if she didn’t. Anyways, one of her postings today was thinking how different her family is. Her dinner isn’t inspired by Pinterest, but by either cafeteria or take-out. Her diaper bag isn’t about fashion, it’s a traveling hospital. I could go on and on, but you get the point. It has inspired me to truly appreciate each day with my family.
My new goal is to have dinner as a family as many nights as possible. I realize that there will be nights it just won’t work, but I won’t beat myself up over it. Tonight we had breakfast for dinner, French toast and sausage. After dinner, I decided to whip up a batch of brownies, with frosting of course! Robert and I did the dishes together while the kids played and the brownies baked. So tonight, we had a nice family dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, the kids picked up the living room, dessert was made, dishes from dessert were done, and kids were in bed close to on time. It truly was a good night. I don’t think we even needed to discipline the kids much! These are the nights that I want to treasure. These are the nights that I picture us having as an “ideal family”. I can say with certainty that my classmate from high school would love to have an evening like we had. Her three kids at home, happily playing together, being able to eat together as a family, and all sleeping under the same roof. When this does happen for them, I know that she treasures those nights.
When I went through my cancer treatments, people kept telling me how amazed by me they were and how inspiring I was. I didn’t get it at the time. I just did my thing to make it through each day. I get it a bit more now. So many lessons to be learned in life. Some of the greatest teachers are the smallest people.