Life Happens...

I rarely like to miss a week blogging but as we all know, life can sometimes get overwhelming.  Two weeks ago, in the midst of my "Random Acts of Kindness" deliveries, I received a phone call from my husband who said he got injured at work.  He wouldn't give me anymore details until I came home.

As I entered the house with little guy, I saw my husband hobbling on one foot; apparently, he slipped on ice while trying to get into his car and his knee made a popping sound--his bad knee that is...

You see, my husband has had two knee surgeries in the past (both on the same knee).  One surgery was done while we were dating, and the other surgery happened just last February after a sledding accident.  When we went sledding just a few weeks ago, you could imagine my fear.  I was playing referee the entire time trying to make sure that we didn't have a repeat occurrence from last year.  I sounded like this:

"Lew, please keep your sled away from Little Lewie.  I'm afraid you're going to collide, and you'll hurt your knee again."

"Lew, can you move just another 10 feet in that direction?"

"Lew, don't go yet!!  It looks like those kids over on that end are going first."

Yes, my husband calls me "Nagarella" and the "Fun Police" with good reason.  After becoming a mom, I seem to "worry" all the time.  Sometimes for good reason, but sometimes just because worrying has taken over my blood..."

Last week, however, God and the universe taught me a very important lesson.  Worrying gets you nowhere; worrying is unproductive; and finally, trade worry with faith.

It appears that no matter how much I worried during the last time we went sledding, my husband was going to injure his knee regardless, and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it.  There wasn't anything he could have done differently either.  He slipped on ice and voila!   He went to his "knee doctor" the very next day, spent the week icing his injury, and had an MRI done last Sat.  We knew nothing...was it a torn meniscus, an ACL injury, what?

This is where the faith comes in...  Last Thursday, Lew got the good news from his knee doctor that he wouldn't need another surgery after all.  While he did "stretch" his ACL and it appears as if he has a painful bone injury, the doctor assured us that, in time, he would make a full recovery.  His knee would start to hurt less, and he probably wouldn't need any physical therapy either...

As you can imagine, we've been taking it easy this past week -- no sledding, no roller skating, no skiing or any type of sport, and that's okay.  Sometimes I need to take a deep breath and stop all the worrying.  In fact, I need to trade worry for faith.  Faith is what will assure me that everything is going to be all right, and faith is what will allow me to enjoy those days of sledding again instead of acting like the Police Patrol.  I'm sorry I ever had any doubts...

My two boys gearing up for their first time down the hill.

The hole of this snow tube was a little too big for him, but oh well, we tried!

Laughing!

My husband teasing me after I nagged him about being careful not to get injured.

Rare footage of me with my little boy.  (Not really, but there are way more daddy-son pictures than mommy-son pics!)

Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week

Valentine's Day and Random Acts of Kindness Week are probably my favorite holidays (besides Christmas).  For me, this time of year is not only a chance to rekindle the relationship between my husband and me, but it's also a time to remind my friends and family how much they are loved and appreciated. 

There are certain values that I want to instill in my son--hard work, faith, courage, humor, passion.  However, above all of these, I want my son to learn love and empathy.  This year I decided that I'm going to use this year's Random Acts of Kindess (RAK) Week, which starts today, to teach these two important values and have fun in the process! 

Today, we started our mission by baking brownies and heart shaped cookies.  We then packed up little gift bags to give to friends this week.  While I'm not the craftiest person in the world, I did find some Valentine's Day printables on Pinterest that were really cute.  With a little ingenuity and the help of an awesome dollar store near me, I managed to "make" a few cute Valentine's Day items that I think my friends will enjoy.  The goal in making these Valentine's Day "gift bags" is twofold.

1) I want my son to learn that sometimes homemade gifts are even more meaningful than store bought items.
2)  I want my son to learn the joy of giving.  (This week, we will be randomly driving to friends' houses to surprise them with these Valentine's Day gift bags.  They might not be home, but leaving them with a special note will be half the fun.)

Finally, I hope to end our week of "surprise gift giving" by purchasing food and then driving it to our local food pantry.  Lewie is still a little too young to be helping out at a soup kitchen, but that will be our next goal as he gets older...

Do you have any plans for RAK week?  (Right now my biggest hurdle is finding the time to do everything between a full week of work.  Still, when there's a will, there's a way!!)

Lots of love (and concentration) went into making these cookies!

A perfect heart!

Now to make a double heart!  (Notice the flour in my little guy's hair!)

Making sugar cookies sure is messy!

A sample of our work!

Getting our Valentine's Day "gift bag" ready...

The free Valentine's Day 8X10 print is from How to Nest for Less, and
the free XOXO Valentines are from The Celebration Shoppe. 

Here's one more picture of the treats that will be going into this package from the "heart."

Here's the final bag...ready to be delivered!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Yesterday, we packed up our car at 5:30 in the morning and drove an hour to the Lutz Children's Museum in Manchester, CT to meet Chuckles the Groundhog.  Chuckles the VIII is Connecticut's official "Groundhog," and so she makes the spring prediction for the state of Connecticut.

As we entered the museum at 6:40 ish, we were greeted by a sea of other families and TV news anchors, all waiting for Chuckles's very important prediction...  I must admit that even my son, who LOVES the snow, was hoping Chuckles would predict an early spring. 

Still, no such luck.  The speaker came out with Chuckles in hand and gave everyone the gloomy news--six more weeks of winter.  Everyone was so disappointed, you could hear a pin drop in the room.  (I, too, was a little disappointed, but then again, I haven't felt like we've had enough time to adequately enjoy the snow...  I still want to go snow tubing and to take a sleigh ride... Maybe there's still hope!)

The famous Punxsutawney Phil from Pennsylvania saw his shadow Sunday morning too, foretelling six more weeks of winter.  There were over 20,000 spectators for that event; I'd like to make the trip one year...

So for now, we have another few inches of snow planned in the forecast for this coming week...maybe we'll even have another snow day or two.  I don't mind those at all :)

My son didn't make this paper groundhog.  My husband did.  Little Lewie was too busy playing on the "pretend trolley."

Meet Chuckles, the Groundhog.  It turns out that our famous little guy was a rescue after she was discovered injured and orphaned as a baby.

 

And here she is again...So super cute!

And here's my memory of being there since all of us just looked way too tired in our pictures... Early morning photo shoots just aren't our thing!