Housewife Alchemy: Turning the Mundane into Meaningful

I have had many emails and phone calls this week inquiring about how Zoe is doing, and I am happy to say she is healing!  Remicade, which is the new drug she is on, seems to be living up to its outlandish, retail price, and she is back to school, bogged down with assignments, and loving every minute of it . . . NOT!   Thank you everyone for your prayers, your positive energy, and your well wishes.  Knowing that so many people care for and love our family, gave us strength and helped us to face this trial with courage, hope, and faith.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

For us, this has been a week of getting back into routines and healing.  Spending ten days in the hospital, albeit able to go back and forth on pass, helped me to better appreciate my run-of-the-mill life .  Being a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom is surprisingly not that glamorous or exciting . . . tee hee!  I spend my days teaching, cleaning, cooking, loving and creating.  There are times when I think I am going to lose my mind if I have to make another meal that does not get eaten, empty and reload the dishwasher for the third time that day, or remind my boys that, contrary to what they may think, someone always gets hurt when they wrestle.  But, being away from it and seeing people with even greater challenges than mine, has reminded me just how good I've got it and has made me embrace the mediocrity of my life with greater determination and a deeper sense of purpose.  Movies and books will not be written about my life, but I can't help but think that no matter how small, or how mundane, the tasks I choose to focus on each day are, if I perform them with sincerity and love then they will mean something to someone.

Making cards for friends:

Giving this monkey my full and undivided attention:

His Mr. Olympia pose:

Cleaning up disasters:

Teaching (grammar of all things!)

Making two suppers to appease my fussy crew:

Decorating for Christmas with my very own elves:

And trying to drag this lazy lump out of bed each and every morning:

This is my life.  Sure, it makes some people cringe, but I love it, and I am so grateful to be back it!