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Small Victories

My baby boy turns two in July.

He is my last baby.

I am tasting freedom, the likes of which I haven't had in years!

I am savoring all the lasts and acknowledging milestones for what they are… but lets be honest, most days I am fist pumping, high kicking and dancing in celebration.

This is not a blog post about how sweet these days are or how I need to appreciate it while they are little. That is important, but that is for another day.

Today I am celebrating how much I can get done in a day now that my baby can feed himself and go out with his Daddy to do chores.

We are in the process of finishing out our basement and creating a family room. The kids are spending a lot more time down there, so we no longer have the need for a large toy room.

On the flip side, I am spending more time writing and keeping up with our ever growing farm paper work and I need a space that I can spread out in and keep kids out of.

Yesterday I swapped my large toy room and my small office room.

It has been seven years since I had a cleared off desk top. Yes, seven years.

I am an organized person. I like things neat and tidy. For seven years my office in both our old house and our current house has been an irritant. I just couldn't ever quite get caught up.

People talk about the seasons of life quite often. I have been in the season of babies for a really long time. Eight years actually.

And now….

Now I can breathe.

God willing, my husband and I are entering a sweet spot in our children's lives. My oldest is eight, my baby is nearly two. We do not have teenagers yet and we are almost out of diapers. Perfection.

I can tackle projects that I have dreamed of doing for years. This is not to say that it is easy, I wrangled kids all day yesterday while rearranging, but I was ABLE to do it. A year ago that would not have been possible.

Wherever you are in life, breathe in and breathe out. It will not last. Life changes. We graduate school, we get jobs, we lose jobs, we break up, we get married, we have babies, we lose loved ones, we grow, we change, and life never stops moving.

If you are in a good place, soak it in, store it up, so when life is harder, you can remember how good it can be.

If you are in a hard place, know that it will pass. Life will move forward and it can get better. Sometimes you have to fight for better, sometimes you have to choose better, but it WILL get better if you choose to look at every positive moment (however small) and focus on it. See the light, see the good, and fight for it.

The past several years with small kids and babies has been a struggle. Yes I know it is good and yes I know it is a blessing, but make no mistake about it, it is HARD.

Don't let anyone trivialize your struggles, whatever they may be. Good things can be hard. Sad things can be catastrophic. You are allowed to feel the weight of life. So feel the pain, feel the beauty and then decide how you want to react.

Today I am celebrating a clean desk and a morning with only two kids in the house. It would be a small joy to some, to me, it feels monumental.

Take your small joy, small success, small victory and celebrate it. An empty sink, a folded basket of laundry, a day without crying, a promotion, a birthday; whatever today brings you, find the good, hold it tight and I will be cheering you on.

Happy Saturday (St. Patricks Day)!

so many fragile things



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