Madeline, stop licking the wall please.

I couldn't believe this actually came out of my mouth. Why does she do these bizarre things? Strange.

Today, for the first time in like, 6 months, I was able to take care of my children on my own. I cannot tell you how incredible it felt to get back to being mom, in the full scope of the word. There were moments today where Ginger just wanted me to hold her - put her head down on my shoulder. It felt amazing. What a blessing. I remember back before when I was a stay at home mom before cancer, I seemed to have this underlying urgency to hurry up and get the girls fed, tended to, so I could get back to whatever I was doing. Which could have been as stupid as looking online or cleaning the house. Now, I can't wait to tend to them, I relish in it actually. And I do still look online, later when they're napping and I've been able to clean up the kitchen or take a nap or something. I just don't care to be stressed out by the things that used to stress me out - it's wild. I cleaned up the house, but really just enough to have people in and just relax. I can't believe I'm not stressing about having 10 people for dinner tomorrow. Normally, well, the old Dina would have been climbing the walls by now, making sure everything was perfect. The only thing I'm really kind of stressed about for tomorrow is the hope that I'll get a good spot on the couch to get comfortable. We'll see.

I think I'm going to start a new tradition here at the Mountcastle house. I've started others, like pizza for dinner the night before Thanksgiving, chocolate chip cookies from scratch at Christmas, church on Christmas Eve, etc. But this one for Thanksgiving is going to be a but more meaningful. I'm going to go around the table and ask each person what they are most thankful for and how they want to give back to others during the next year. Then, I'll read from my devotional for grace. I think this will make us all think, which we just get too busy to do sometimes, right?

I'm off to shower now, then go to bed. OH - slept in bed last night and did great - was able to move around a bit more, so I didn't feel so 'chicken arm' when I woke up, but I think I'll get better at it the more I get accustomed. Can you believe I had my surgery a month ago? Isn't that crazy? Doc did say I am still 6 weeks out from healing and starting fills, but that's fine w/ me. I'm really focusing on healing right now. Glad to be getting healthy and glad to be alive. So happy the impatience has faded for now, that was exhausting.

Still so tired at night, so exhausted. Wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for, it's almost laughable to try to put into words. It just sounds like a bad 'made for TV' movie. I'll do my best to express myself in an authentic manner tomorrow when we say grace, hope it will come out the way I intend it to. Blessings to all of you, I'll be posting again on Sunday evening as we have a full holiday weekend. Mom and Britt came up today, they are staying at a hotel nearby as Sean, Joe, Dad and Uncle John are coming up tomorrow, and Dad will be staying with us till Sat. We're all going to the light parade on Sat evening, Madeline is so excited. So am I actually. I am so happy to have such a beautiful life. My goodness, I am blessed.

God Bless -