Red Pigtails

Let’s throw some color back in this place. You may feel like you’ve seen this image before, but no, I just took 50 million pictures at different angles in this same place. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Red rocks & red(ish) heads for life. 🧡

#am_nationalparks #mangosdoarches

Break

That between holidays feeling.

Anniversary

While 2020 has seemed 100 years long, twelve actual years with this guy have flown by. Couldn’t do without him. 💛
📷: @sherryreneephotography

Christmas Wishes

I’m too lazy to edit another Christmas-themed picture for today so you get this oldie-but-goodie & our fam Christmas card pic. As we celebrate Christmas and see this emotional year out, we wish you a peace & light-filled 2021 💛

For the Mamas

Hey fellow Mamas—you hanging in there? After a year of 2020 moms balancing all. the. things & topping it off with the regular Christmas crazy “magic maker in chief” role... just know I am thinking of you & sending you a big hug. Whatever you can do is enough. We are enough. 💛

Holiday Excitement

Who wants to go see some Christmas lights?! 🎄 (Or “anytime we get out of the house” face... 😄)

A Study of Patience

Read this verse last night as I was studying patience (because, you know 😬): “Remembering without ceasing your work of ​​​faith​, and ​​​labour​ of love, and ​​​patience​ of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Work of faith
Labor of love
Patience of hope
The context here caught my attention. Work & labor are actions that take effort, and they are juxtaposed with patience. Patience as work. And what does the work of patience bring about? Hope.
So interesting for these times. Maybe the reason I don’t always feel hope is because of my inclination to be impatient? 🤔
Then this one: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
The chain reactions of the experiences of our lives that turn us to & teach us about God. I hope that when this pandemic is over I will have gained some experience, patience, and hope, and witnessed the love of God.
Sunday thoughts.
1 Thes. 1:3 & Romans 5:3-5

Christmas Light Fun

Christmas tree farm. Just kidding, it’s the tree from our living room, seven ways. ✨

Making Do

Out of an abundance of covid caution, he missed his school Christmas party, today. We were both heartbroken about it. It’s hard for me sometimes to not grow cynical... But if there is one thing that lights a fire in my heart it’s seeing my devastated kid—especially when he’s trying so hard to be brave & understanding 😭 I am not a Pinterest mom (in fact, I am almost an anti-Pinterest mom) but this morning we decorated the heck out of our house in anticipation of our at-home Christmas party. He watched White Christmas. When brother gets home we are doing a tree-making craft—and guys, I don’t do kid crafts. (Especially when copious amounts of glue are involved.) But dang if this won’t be the most cheerful, on the fly home Christmas party of the year 🎉 We are tired and our mood is less than stellar; but maybe that’s what they mean when they say “The weary world rejoices.” Maybe grace for the weary in 2020 looks like a pile of extra decorations you forgot you had, a craft that you bought & failed to do last year, a mom in her pajamas tying a million gold bows, and a sick kid & his family finding themselves smiling because the light creeps in and finds them, after all. 🙏🏻

Sick

Coat & shoes on & about to walk out the door to school when he casually mentions he has a sore throat 😳 But is it like a real sore throat or just a “sore” throat? No temperature, no signs of sickness, but his teacher is a grandma so....? We’re playing it cool at home for a couple hours while I figure out how real this is. There were tears and honestly I was pretty bummed, too. This COVID life. 👎🏻

Fisher Price Nativity

Don’t be fooled. All is calm & bright until you start throwing nativity pieces instead of gazing reverently at them because that’s more fun. 😬😅

Arches Sunset

Feeling very mid-January today for some reason 😑, so posting this colorful carefree moment before I go find something lovely for today. We finally got a whiff of snow to go with our freezing temperatures so maybe that will be it. ❄️⛄️

#am_nationalparks #mangosdoarches

Anticipating Solstice

Just 11 more days, then the days start getting longer again and the light comes back into our lives. I’ve always loved the modern concurrence of winter solstice & Christmas. ✨

Sedated Echo

Long day at the hospital yesterday having some standard tests done on L’s 💛. “Cardiology days” are always exhausting but yesterday went well. She had her 1st sedated echo. For each echo (& there have been many) in the past, because she was so little & they prefer not to have to put those tiny ones under, I have had to straddle her on an examination table, sometimes for up to 40 min, & hold her still while singing/trying to entertain as a tech obtains the necessary images of her heart. 😳 Since she is bigger now (& stronger & harder to hold still 😅) she was sedated for yesterday’s tests. That brings its own significant kinds of stresses for both Lydia & me, but the hospital staff did an amazing job yesterday making it all as positive as possible. No small task for a little girl who has been through so much & developed a mortal fear of anyone in scrubs. 😢💛 It’s funny, but most of our days I either forget or bury all the emotional hard & toughness these experiences take. But every once in awhile I get a really clear & vulnerable look at just how tenuous life can be. Days when they examine my daughter’s heart & interrogate the device that causes it to beat every minute of every day—these are sobering moments.
As we went through the whole thing yesterday & heard results (positive) today, I definitely felt exhausted, but even more than that, GRATEFUL. Grateful for medical personnel who dedicate years of study & practice to helping others live their best lives, and especially the ones who tend to a child’s emotional health as much as they do the physical. Grateful that I live in a country where high-quality medicine is readily available & for the insurance that helps cover it. Grateful for the friends & family who pray for my girl continually & for the miracle that her daddy works at her children’s hospital & can be there to support her! 🤯 But most of all I am reminded every time that this girl’s life is a miracle that would not have been possible in the not-so-distant past; that every day I get with her is a literal gift from God. There isn’t much more humbling than that. So, tired? Yes. But what a small "price” to pay for 1 of my greatest gifts. 🙏🏻 Grateful.

Keeping You Safe

Licking the window, as you do. 😁
This is our third winter in quarantine due to risks of RSV, flu, and now COVID-19. We have missed many family & social events, but it has been the right thing to do for our daughter. I 100% believe that someday soon we will be able to return to all our normal activities and she will at last be able to join us. It has been hard, but the understanding & support we have received from family and friends has made a huge difference in overcoming what might otherwise be completely heartbreaking. Their attitudes and adapting to reach out to us in safe ways have made a hard thing less hard. Let’s do our best to support each other in our quarantine, social distancing and masking efforts instead of pressuring or even guilt-tripping those who are doing their best to keep their families safe. It will end. Be patient & hang on. 💛

Notice

Sometimes it’s pausing for just a second to notice something lovely in an ordinary place. In this case, sunset, mint plant, leftover mini pumpkin, and my continued advocacy for dirty window light.

November Recap

November. Less than 30 days left in this 365 project of mine. 🤯 Pushing through the winter blah to finish is hard, but I am always amazed at how it lifts me when I really try to find/make something beautiful. #amango2020 #amango365