Why I'm So Glad It's Now and Not Then (Thankful Thursday)



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 This time last year I was a hot mess.  It was my last (and hardest) semester before graduation, I was planning my wedding, searching for a new house, and the holidays were looming: not exactly a time in life I look back on with much fondness.  To be honest with you, I do NOT handle stress well - if my plate gets too full, I just want to (and sometimes DO) curl up in a ball and scream and cry and pretend like I have no responsibilities and no pressures and no deadlines.  I really try to minimize stress in my life, because I'm just not cut out to handle it well.  Stress starts to take a toll on your body in sometimes very unexpected ways - for example, this time last year, as stress for me was at it's peak, I had a horrible, disgusting, unbearably itchy rash all over my hands and part of my arms.  I kid you not, y'all, I looked like a leper whose rotting flesh might fall off at any given moment.  (You're welcome for that visual)

It was awesome.  I even had the rash on my wedding day.  Even awesomer.  

But that was just a season.  A tiny little blip on the radar of my life, which has now passed over and on to better things.  All through college, I never really got to enjoy the holidays. I SO wanted to - I wanted to do the holiday baking and really enjoy the decorating, and I wanted to send out Christmas cards and get all my shopping done BEFORE the week before Christmas, but alas: that was NEVER the case.  I was too busy being a giant freaked out stress ball to EVER really enjoy the holiday season. 

And this year, I am just so utterly grateful that, for the first time in 5 years, I am truly able to be QUIET inside and meditate on the beauty that is to come - to find true peace and joy in this season, to really ENJOY decking the halls and baking the goodies and shopping for gifts for my loved ones. 

So that is what I'm thankful for - I'm thankful for the seasons of our lives, just like the seasons of this Earth.  Because there would be no brisk and lovely autumn days without long and sweltering summer ones... no sunny, breezy spring without a cold and dreary winter. 

If you're in a sad or lonely or hard season of your life, remember that it is just a season, and "this too shall pass."  As human beings, our lives are not stagnant; they are not static - we are dynamic, moving, changing individuals, and where you are now will not be where you are in six months or a year or five years.  Be thankful for that fact.... I know I am. 



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 And just on a side note, I want to thank YOU - the wonderful people who read this blog.  You really and truly have no idea how much I adore all your funny, sweet, and encouraging comments, and how thankful I am just for the TIME it takes you to read what I have to say.  That means so, so much to me.  I really do my best to visit those of you who have blogs when I can, and it has been so fun getting to know you.  I really and truly hope each one of my readers and friends has an amazing Thanksgiving week, and I can't wait to hear all about it!

This weekend I have friends staying over whom I haven't seen in almost a decade, and I also have a wedding to attend... so things might be a little quiet around here for the next few days, but be sure and come back Monday when I'll be debuting my brand spankin cute new blog design!!! Yippeeeee!

Have a wonderful, beautiful Thursday...

J

Did You Wake Up Healthy This Morning? Ok Then. (Thankful Thursday)

It's kind of a running joke around here that I have to be bleeding from my eyeballs before I'll actually go in and see a doctor.  Sometimes I'll complain about this or that and my husband or a friend will ask "well did you make an appointment?" and that's usually when I back away and my eyes glaze over and I shake my head "nu-uh." 

No doctors.  Me no like doctors.  Doctors scary.  Hospitals icky.  I fine. 

Perhaps I'm afraid of running into HIM.

Or perhaps not.  Because I LOVE him.

Anyway, I get really bad migraines anywhere from 0 to 4 times per month, and I've been out of my prescription migraine meds for over a year now.  Most people would make an appointment weeks or even months before they run out, but not I.  Somehow the suffering is justifiable if I do not have to go to the dreaded doctor.  Which is completely ridiculous, and I recognize that, but it's some sort of mental blockage in my brain. 

So last week, after I had three migraines within days of each other, Matthew finally got sick of hearing me complain and just made me an appointment himself with the doctor we'd been referred to by my stepdad.  Before he made the call, my only request was that the appointment be for some time the following week - so I would have time to come up with an excuse to not go mentally and emotionally prepare myself.  But what did Matthew do?  He made an appointment for the very next day. 

I shrieked and moaned and stamped my feet and said I refused to go, but he wouldn't have any of it.  He said I was going even if he had to tie me up and drag me there, and he would absolutely-not-reschedule-it because he knew it would only give me time to come up with a reason to cancel. Uggghhh. 

So I went.

And as I sat in the waiting room with my husband, I looked around and drank in my surroundings (being careful not to touch anything lest I contract streptococcus or something equally vile).  I always get a little nervous at the doctor, even if it's just for a silly routine appointment, and as I sat there dejectedly eyeing the room around me, I suddenly had a bit of an "ah-ha" humility moment. 

Here's where I get to the point.  So my stepfather, Edd, has cancer.  Cancer of a very bad and ugly kind, and doctors say his condition is chronic and he'll have to be on chemo for the rest of his life.   And as I sat there in that waiting room, staring at the same walls that Edd probably saw many times throughout his life, I became very, very humble.  There I was, heart beating a little faster than it should, nervous about seeing the doctor for my very non-life-threatening migraines.   And I realized how very much we healthy people take for granted every single moment of our lives.  Especially peace of mind.  The knowledge that there is very likely not a deadly disease ravaging our insides, threatening our very lives and stealing away our ability to wake up to wellness and a functionally performing body each morning. 

And I felt quietly overwhelmed by this realization.  And like I said, humbled.  And thankful for a body that is currently functioning as it should, even though I know that will likely not last forever. 

So that is what my Thankful Thursday is about this week.  Just health and life and hope.  It's hard to be mindful of your blessings every single moment, and it really is the truth that we often don't truly miss something until we no longer have it.  But on this Thursday, and every day, really, try to just be ever so grateful if your body is performing as it was intended to.  Take a mental inventory of your functions and faculties, and thank the Heavens for them all. 

Have a happy, thankful Thursday...

J

P.S. - If you're the praying type, will you pray for my stepdad, Edd?  Just pray that the cancer will be completely banished from his body.  I'd sure appreciate it. :)

Thankful.

Hi friends! I'll keep it short and sweet today.  I just felt compelled to join forces with Whitney from The Glamorous Life of a Housewife (one of my all time faves!) and mention a few things I'm thankful for this Thursday (and possibly every Thursday until Thanksgiving!). 

Here goes!

I am SO thankful for...

1. This Man.

This was taken a few years back (before I knew him...sad!), but I think it's one of the sexiest photos of him to date.  He was about to go skydiving!  Rawwrr!!

2. These Girls.



These were my bridesmaids, obviously!

3. These Precious Furry Angels...

I can only hope that I will love my children half

as much as I love these dogs.

But that's all for now folks!  Tune back in on Thursdays to come! :)  Have a beautiful day...

J