Sunday Morning. The Mr. Didn't sleep well and there was a short lived moment where I didn't think we were going to make it to church. But we had promised the girls, and also the parents, that we would take them not only to church, but to visit their great Mimi, and also to a hotel to spend the night. We could not let them down, and I had a feeling that something very good would come of out of it if we pushed through the tired worn down feelings of not enough sleep and showed up. Good things can't happen if you don't show up. So we did. And trust me when I say very good things happened. There were no regrets.
Feeling very refreshed and revived, we swung by the house to get the pup, and then into McDonald's for Happy Meals and we were away! We got to MiMi's house, and visited for awhile and then checked into the hotel for the night. Ummm...it was a long, long night. The girls were full of energy and sleep was not on their agenda. We fixed up the pull out sofa for them and put on Bluey, which is really the only cartoon I can tolerate these days, and hoped they would settle down soon. Three..hours...later...They were both finally asleep. Then came the very real struggle of getting ourselves comfortable enough to sleep. I used to be comfortable in hotel beds, but nowadays I prefer my own bed to any other bed.
Monday we were all very happy to be heading home. I was so tired I just sat in my chair fighting sleep and let the girls watch (mindless) TV until their mom got there.
And then all of a sudden I was just overflowing with joy. The house was already picked up, the Mr. and Matt went out for a drive and it was me time. I had a shower, fixed my hair, put on some good face products, and then sat down in my chair and watched my You tube shows until sleep overcame me.
I woke up this morning overflowing with gratitude. God has been so very good to me. The Mr. has been so very good to me. I have the best granddaughters in the entire world. And kids, of course. I'm getting pictures of Ally in Hawaii and I don't think I have ever seen her so very happy. It lifts my heart to see her feeling good.
Today I woke up very late. Had to rush to get the dog to the grooming appointment. I swung by the store to grab some pancake mix for the girls and then over to their house to pick them up. They came running to the car and piling in, and then Claire gave me a flower that she made. It was made of construction paper and the flower had many individual petals that she had pasted together, and it was very well done. I told her I loved it, and asked her if she liked cutting out paper and gluing things together and she said, to my delight Yes, Grandma, I am a crafty girl! Like Grandma, like granddaughter! She has absolutely no idea I have spent the better part of a week cutting and pasting a Victorian church together, piece by piece, as a backdrop to the Toilet Paper Christmas Choir. Which, by the way, is probably going to go on the back burner for awhile, the church that is. And speaking of the TPCC, it is finished! The girls and I spent quite a bit of time working on it today and we got it done! We had a moment, Claire and I, though, which became a teaching moment for both of us. I had already painted the wooden stands gold, but Claire didn't want gold, she wanted to choose and paint her own color. I told her they were going to be gold because all the rest were gold, and then as the words were escaping my mouth, I began changing my mind, but she ran out of the room and downstairs, angry at me. I called her back and told her that if she didn't stay in the room and talk with me about it, how could she know I had changed my mind? That running away did nothing, but staying in the room might change things, and that it was all about talking it out. And she was absolutely right. Why should the stands be gold? I have lots of paint and lots of extra wooden stands. Why not paint with all the colors of the rainbow? And why not glitter, while we are at it? And so it was that we stayed in the art room a lot longer than I had intended, but in the end everybody was happy. After all, this project is not about me, anyway. It was about restoring Katie's school art, and now about her children making new art. So I bowed out and let them have freedom of expression. And it was very, very good.
After they left the Mr. took me to dinner. As we sat in the quiet diner and I thought back on the last few days I was overwhelmed with that gratitude again. I couldn't ask for more. I closed my eyes and just let the feeling wash over me. So.much.peace. All the little things that sometimes drag me down seem to have retreated. The Lord knows about them, and that is good enough for me.
The All New Toilet Paper Christmas Carol Choir
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