Friday, December 17, 2010

More Joy

Joy #4 Lemon ice after lunch and after dinner, twice in the same day

Joy #5 Jackson FINALLY taking a nap after 4 days of no-naps

Joy #6 Lola sat on a block yesterday and said, "Ouch! Mom, I hurt my penis." I responded, "You don't have a penis honey. What hurts?" "Mom, I DO have a penis. I have a boo boo on it." Now if you can't laugh at your 2 year old daughter insisting that her penis hurts you really are missing the Joy.

Joy #7 Feeling little tiny baby kicks

Joy #8 Helping set up for the school Christmas party and thinking that Lola and Jackson are going to have SO MUCH FUN! Can't wait to get some pics!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Finding Joy

We've got a lot going on in the Freedman house right now. We're in the painstaking and financially draining process of selling our house and buying a bigger one, a move we hadn't really intended to make. Happily,  the move has become necessary in order to make room for our newest addition; baby Freedman #3 will be coming in May. The discovery that we'll be becoming a family of five is very exciting but also nerve wracking and stressful, forcing us to re-consider some of the decisions we had taken for granted when we though it would just be the four of us. And we're going though all this buying and selling, packing and moving, questioning and re-considering during the holidays, which carry with them their own busyness and stress and financial strain. December is Aaron's busiest month at the restaurant and 12-14 hour work days become the norm rather than the exception. Add to all this the everyday issues that come up when parenting a couple of rambunctious 2 year olds and it can be difficult to look within and find the Joy in the holidays.

I was just reading a blog article titled "An Experiment in Joy." The author, in an attempt to rebound from a particularly difficult time, is challenging herself to document through pictures and words 100 instances of Joy in her life during the month of December. She has invited her readers to participate. While I don't posses that kind of blogging disciple, as several of you have gently pointed out, I really love the idea. So I'm going to try and document my own moments of Joy.

And in the process I hope to remind myself 1) where the true Joy in my life comes from 2) how easy it can be to put aside the stress and worry and find the Joy in the present  moment 3) that laughter is free. And contagious. 4) and that time passes whether I'm paying attention or not. If I don't SLOW DOWN I will miss moments of Joy, and so might Aaron. And so might Lola and Jackson. And no amount of stress and worry and questioning and re-considering is really worth sacrificing my Joy and the Joy of my family.

So, if I try to document my moments of Joy can I get to 100 between now and December 31st? Well, I have no doubt I will experience 100 moments of Joy in the next 2 weeks. But 100 moments documented.... that's quite an undertaking for me.

But I just downloaded and am listening to a new Jack Johnson album (Joy #1) and will now find the Joy in searching through some recent pictures to post. I will smile as I remember the moments they were taken. And I will imagine the ones I'll be taking in the next couple off weeks. (Joy #2)

Only 98 Joys to go...