The Phoenix: Epicuriousmothering Rising

We all walked out of the house looking like this. . . Totally ready for a family photos shoot and didn't’ even plan it!   Oh Heavens to Betsy, what a week. Here’s a truthful response to this week: 1) Covid is, in fact, real. 2) Parents are precious and dear and we are grateful for each and every moment we have with them—however many that may be. 3) Choose your HARD: Being outside heals the soul and gives you perspective you wouldn’t get any other way.  Getting up to see the first light of day outline the mountains and watching the world wake up—worth the 45 minutes of lost sleep by a gazillion.  CHOOSE to do a hard thing. 4) I am, truth to tell, terrified of mountain biking but I do it because we should all do something we are afraid of as often as we can stand (for me—once a month). 5) There is waaaaaaaayyyy more kindness in the world around us than hate or anger or prejudice.   6) People want  to love you and help you and encourage you in your endeavors. ...

  Well. This has been a week. I can’t believe that I picked THIS week to write for seven days about things that are beautiful because it’s been a struggle.  Holy Hannah. Ug. Finnegan tested Positive (the rest of us are negative) We read our eyes out about symptoms and we both agree that Finnegan started his symptoms on Monday morning.  He woke up saying his throat hurt and he felt tired.  This is actually pretty common with him when he doesn’t get enough sleep so we asked him if he felt sick or anything and he said no and so off he went to school seeming 100% normal.  The next day said he felt a little tired and his nose ran but he said his throat was better so I gave him allergy medicine (another normal thing at our house this time of year—we all have allergies—I’ve had bad allergies all season) and off to school and so on and so forth until Thursday when he felt pretty much normal again but realized he might have had more exposure than the rest of us and thoug...

When I started this crazy idea of writing for 60 days, I had this idea that if I could make myself think every day for 60 days about what I wanted to do with my spare time, the empty spaces inside of me would be fixed.  I would somehow uncover a hidden talent or desire or dream that would make me a million dollars, validate all my efforts these past 43 years, and calm the loud and crazy voices inside me. And it so many ways it has, but on day 56, looking back over the past 55 (ok, that alone makes me feel sort of amazed--maybe they're not all keepers, but I sat my not so little butt down and wrote . . . and followed through) posts, I see a theme going on here and I see how much farther this posting has gone than I thought. I feel like I'm waking up a little bit more each day. I see that under this idea of discovery what I should do in the next step of my life, that I was really trying to figure out why I felt so fractured and confused and lost.  I think in a lot of ways,...