This is "real life" too!

At the end of this 13 hour sprint on Zoom and in front of my computer screen, I'm ready to call it a day! It was a warmer today so I didn't need my whole "get up" for work, but when Jason saw me with my coat on and my "afghan skirt" the other day, he brought me an old pair of socks that he rehabbed to be hand warmers that still allowed typing. Our back bedroom (my office) gets chilly! We love our bedrooms being cooler for sleeping but for working it hasn't been ideal. Anyway, I have finally closed my work email and there are no teeth other than my own to brush tonight, so bed can beckon early and I can reply! This morning when Terah woke before 7 a.m. (this is unheard of for a Myers-Benner gal), the first sleepy words were, "We need to put my toothbrush in my bag." She was one excited kid, chomping at the bit to head to WV with Grandma, Grandpa and her sisters for a few days.

It's only Jason that won't have a stint at the Mountain House in the course of the week. On Friday, Tala and I took off for the mountains just the two of us. My cell phone and computer remained in Keezletown! It snowed most of the way, but we arrived safely and soon settled into retreat and relaxation mode. The weekend was such a gift - it was full of uninterrupted conversations, deep connection, laughter, a Rook tournament, my first experience of "binge watching" a Netflix show (I introduced Tala to The Good Place, which I'm enjoying the 2nd time around just as much or more), sharing stories intermingled with tears, a walk to the labyrinth, throwing snowballs and sharing things we are grateful for, lots of hugs, eating delicious foods, restful nights, and continuing to work on building new, healthier neural pathways!

These hearts in the snow seemed like beautiful symbolism - there was a lot of love shared!

We reflected on the weekend as we traveled home and both shared things we were taking from that time. For me a few things stood out. The first was that I didn't want the weekend to feel like it was somehow not part of "real life" and that now we were returning to the "real world." I want times of rest, rejuvenation, play, healing, and deep connection to be the real world too! I also felt very present during the time away and it felt so grounding to be able to focus in on one thing at a time. I would love to bring that mindfulness to more of life. And, finally, I'm slowly starting to accept that personal growth/healing/change seems to more often come in the form of a whole series of baby steps along the way, almost indiscernible until you realize you are at a different place than you were. Here's to taking those baby steps surrounded by love, connection and companionship, whether in Keezletown or Harman!

Speaking of love, Jason gave a loving gift to me on Valentine's Day that was shared with all of us at Tangly Woods. He created a series of cards with the words Love, Empathy, Compassion, Kindness, Patience, Peace, Humility, Curiosity, Justice, Fidelity, Gentleness, Joy, and Respect. Under each main word were six additional words that connected to that main theme for Jason. For example, under Love were affection, devotion, fondness, friendship, cherishing, and delight. Each week we rotate the card around where we have them hanging in a central location where we can all see them often and continue to focus on nurturing these aspects of relationships with one another. This week is Compassion and some of us are needing to remind each other consistently that these words are things we want reflected in our relationships with each other and with ourselves!

In closing, a few other tidbits from life for "the scrapbook." Lately, Terah and Alida have been spending hours many days dressed up in various "fancy" outfits, playing some variation of school. Often I'm so occupied with meetings that I hardly know what they are up to, but every now and then I get curious when I don't hear anything for a long time and when I go looking this is the kind of scene I come upon. 

As we welcome March, there are signs of spring. We aren't able to do a lot outside right now due to the amount of snow and rain we have had lately and the list of projects is expanding as we near the next growing season. For now, we enjoy some of the first flowers.

And Friday morning, before leaving for WV, I got to join Jason outside and learn how to prune elderberries. I'm not upset in this photo, Terah just caught me concentrating on my next cut. 

It felt special, after a long hiatus, to all be outside together working on a shared project. 

Terah was especially excited about hauling the elderberry canes to the pad for chipping and then skipping back down to the next elderberry bush hand in hand with me. I liked that pretty well too!