Good advice from my sister

Our mother is in the hospital with an infection and I’m worrying about EVERYTHING!  Anyway, sis and I were texting (she’s out of town at a conference) and I said I was in ‘high level worry mode lately and was in an extremely bad physical state’ and was trying to calm down.  I had a rough weekend physically and spent most of the time in the recliner.

So she speaks (texts) the words of the wise ancient, certainly more than her 41 years..she has matured through the over 8 yr process of Recovery and she amazes me every day.  So she said:  ‘Worry and stress makes your pain worse.  Give her to God cuz He already has her.’  Huh.  I don’t know how she does that.  She just speaks the truth, just like that.  Even when you don’t want to hear it.  When my mind is going a million miles an hour and just in circles, getting no where, worrying about infection and fever of unknown origin, white cell counts and chemo, bone marrow testing, ugh sepsis, I know too much working in the medical field, wedding in a MONTH!  My sister is getting married in a month.  Mom has to get better and make it to the wedding.  It’s a small wedding, but family is flying in, including mom.  I will channel my sister’s calm vibe and pray to put it all in God’s hands.  Worrying does no good except makes me feel worse.  She’s so right.  I used to be the one who was always right.  I held everyone together.  I’m so proud of my sister and how far she’s come to be who she is now.  And she’s so right.

We often miss the BIGGEST little things.

Lucy Claire’s 1st grade teacher had emailed the parents and asked us to write a note of encouragement to our child that she would give them as they began the three days of CRCT testing yesterday.  I’d sent it in last week in a sealed mailer so LC wouldn’t know what it was.  Oh, she noticed it and wanted to know what it was – she doesn’t miss a thing.  ‘Just something for Mrs. Corley’, I said.  You can imagine what it said – ‘I love you, do your best, I know you are going to do great, use your brain, you are a smart girl’ and I closed with my mommy secret special thing (guess not anymore LOL) that I always tell them at bedtime: “I SUPERLOVE you”.  I drew different color hearts and stars on the envelope and PRINTED the note so she could read it because she can’t interpret cursive yet. 
 
I was really surprised when I picked the kids up last night from the after-school-program and LC ran up to me and hugged me and said FIRST THING “Thank you, mommy, for the note you wrote to me! It was so special! I love you!”  It took me a minute to even remember what she was talking about because I was honestly trying to dodge her a little to protect myself from the pain that could be inflicted on my body by her enthusiasm.  Garrett was all ‘what note? why did you write her a note?’  And I looked down and Lucy Claire was just beaming at me with love and appreciation.  Not fighting with her brother already or whining about being hungry.  There was pure joy on her face as she thanked me and it was the most important thing ever. 

I need to do more of that.  ; )