Life

Today we fingerpainted, including on the carpet for some of us. :/ We cleaned and cooked and played in the backyard pool. 

Tonight I went vt'ing. I had a nice visit with Lori and got to know her better. She is a fascinating lady. She suffers with a debilitating disease caused by the pg & e mess in hinkley, ca - ala Erin brokavich. And she has this great attitude about it. I really love getting to know people better and learning from them. 

Then I visited Arline. She's been married for 59 years (!) and told me all sorts of stories. This is the third time I've visited with her, and she's just so full of wisdom and experience. I've had marriage on the mind, so I asked her to impart some of her marriage wisdom to me. She told me the first 100 years of marriage are the hardest. Mama Ray used to say the first 40 years were the hardest. Yikes, I've got a long way to go. Good thing I don't have to be perfect now. There's lots and lots of years to grow and good thing, cause I've got lots of growing to do. 

Then Sarah shared sad news. Her midwifes husband passed away last month. He was my age and they have a new baby. Life is tough. Marriage is hard. But it's also awesome and so precious. 

I've been thinking a lot about how I can raise up my family instead of tearing them down. Praise works so much better than critisism and a soft answer goes so much further than a yell. I need to tattoo these things on my brain and remind myself constantly. Maybe that's why Frankie came to our family, because I need to be reminded to take deep breaths just as much as she does. 

And speaking of Frankie. She came into our bed at 6 this morning. This was after her harrowing ghost story incident last night, so I made her go back to sleep with me. These are sweet and tough and beautiful and stressful days. I am so grateful for my life.