The Outtakes and Thanksgiving

So… you know how life can sometimes get so busy where you feel like you’re treading water but it’s getting harder and harder and you feel like you’re struggling to keep your head above water?

Yeah, it’s felt like that for these past few months.

All good things- school stuff, activities, schedules, appointments. Means the kids are growing up, thriving, and we are definitely not in the baby stage of life anymore. While I make my peace with that (peace out, baby!), I blink and keep seeing these kids of ours growing and changing faster than I even want to think about. Blink and I’ll have teenagers cleaning out my fridge. Blink again and I’ll be sending them off to fly on their own. Makes my head spin.

So I’m deeply thankful to God for this stage of life with healthy, happy kids but also find myself exhausted by the day’s end and want nothing more than to crawl into my bed, close my eyes, and repeat it all again the next day.

Doesn’t leave too much room for the creative things I love to do- picture taking, story telling. But I’ve missed it and it sometimes weighs heavy on me the further and further I fall behind. Especially now as my kids have found the few blog books I’ve managed to get printed and love poring through the pages and keep asking when I’ll make the next one. So the struggle between making memories and preserving them continues for me.

But being several months behind is still better than giving up entirely, so here I am. With a Thanksgiving recap. Ha.

Ah, Thanksgiving. One of my favorite holidays made even better now that the kids are older and willing to pitch in and help out. It’s great now because their help is, well, actually helpful! So we spent the day prepping and cooking, laughing and talking. All together at home, cozily feeling the joy of family.

In the midst of all that, we decided that was also the best time to stop everything, throw on our Christmas sweaters newly purchased from Target, and head out for our annual Christmas card photo. Yep, great idea. Well, it kinda was the best time to get it done in terms of Phil’s work schedule, but maybe not the best time in terms of trying to fit one more biggish task on top of a day filled with tasks.