(Views from the cross country ski trail)
Its been a rocky month filled with aches and pains, both mentally and physically but Baddy and I are doing our best to stave off the threatening challenges in our lives. His working hours have increased and I am upping the ante on mine, doing the best I can to hone in on my talents and unabashedly sell my writing to create some extra financial support. My usual humorous and playful attributes are hiding behind my veneer of confidence.
Spring fever is helping to raise our spirits, at least for the boys who are bringing out their lacrosse gear and throwing the ball around in the warm sun, but for Baddy and I, where spring fever invokes a different kind of restlessness, the romance will have to wait until we schedule a weekend away. For now we stop with our eyes half closed to sleepily kiss good morning as we pass each other on the stairway and we continue to have impromptu clandestine meetings in the closet. I miss him and relish every short but sweet interaction, the brush of hands in the kitchen as we fight for the coffee pot and the flirtatious text messages that we send each other during the days.
Sometimes it all gets too much, the stress, the fear of what lurks around the corner, the sorrow for our friends who are struggling worse than we are, but we all forge on.
I do my best to push everything aside and reconnect with the children because they too suffer from the strain of the poor economy and so I went on a school field trip to the Snowmass Cross-Country Ski Center with Feisty-One.
When he got off the school bus and ran toward me with a big smile on his face, his golden hair shining in the sun, all my troubles melted away. It’s always the children who bring rays of sun back to the dark.
He and his two little friends relished having me all to themselves, without any teachers berating them with rules, and they took me on their adventurous tour around the fields, spurting forward with abounding energy and than tossing themselves head first into the snow to cool down.
At the end of our breathtakingly beautiful day with a clear, blue sky and surrounding mountains swathed in a white blanket of snow, Feisty-One and I went off to enjoy our time alone together and I again listened intently to all that he had to say.
“Thumper worries too much. He’s like Mr. Murry Mouse, a skitter, scatter, scurry mouse, a flurry-about-in-a-hurry mouse,” he said referring to Karma Wilsons book, Mr. Murry and Thumbkin. As we shooshed through the sparkling snow we developed solutions to cure Thumper’s high anxiety problem.
That night Feisty-One brought out his guitar to play for us for the first time. We sat and listened, holding back our comments that he was strumming too hard and totally off key and I smiled fueling up for what troubles the next day would bring me. Bring it on, I thought to myself, bring it on!
Jillian's Real Life 
It’s been a rough winter all around. Hubby’s had pneumonia, and the house turned into an infirmary. But now he’s better, the sun is shining, and your blog just brightened my day. As always. Thanks, Jilly.
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Hello Darrelyn,
I am glad that your husband is better. Pneumonia is making it’s way around here as well. Very Scary!
You are my shining star as well!!!
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I just had to smile at you and your hubby exchanging flirty emails all day :-).
Wishing you great success with your writing (as I always do!).
Swati
.-= Swati Bharteey´s last blog ..The Relationship – Chapter Two (a short story) =-.
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Thank you Swati. You too my friend!!!
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Thanks for the refreshing reminder to enjoy moments like that. As a military family facing an upcoming deployment, our days have been pretty stressful lately. Thank you for reminding me to savor those little moments because pretty soon I won’t have those moments with my husband. I need to stop thinking about what will happen when he’s gone and start thinking about what’s happening while he’s still home. Have a great week!
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Operation: Registration =-.
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Hello Heather,
Sometimes life does not allow for us to pay attention to the here and now. It’s always good to get a reminder, we all need it.
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I think the title of your post says it all. Kids have a way of simplifying things, and keeping mindfulness ever-present.
Sending thoughts of ease, peace, prosperity and love your way!
.-= Megan “JoyGirl!” Bord´s last blog ..The Independence of Solitude (Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote) =-.
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Jillian I agree with your Post title , Best wishes to you and your lovely family ….. I am sure you will get the best of everything…. .
.-= Fatibony´s last blog ..Stay Motivated! Not With the Way I feel Right Now =-.
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Children do bring sunshine to our lives. I cannot wait for the financial stress to leave my body!
xo
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Me too Mouse!
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Can I be a SEAPOD too?
Cause I surely do feel like a SEAPOD, but just like you said don’t give into the stress and anxiety.
Turn to those smiles that even on our down days look at us with such joy and acceptance.
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Hello Karen and yes, you too can be a SEAPOD and hopefully, one day, we all will transform into beautiful SEAGODDESSES!
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Your singing my song, once again. Amidst the reality of a second child starting college, and the slower economy; I feel like every conversation my man and I have is prefaced, footnoted, highlighted, cautioned, or exclaimed with money. I’m on high alert all the time so we can meet these college goals and still make the house payment. Which is why it was so out of character for me to make a similar escape as yours, Hannah and I went to the mountain on a perfectly good working/school Wednesday. What I gained from that day with my girl; the car ride up, the lift rides, lunch on the tailgate, and the ride home left me so filled that I actually embraced work the next day. Go figure. Thanks for the affirmation and the closet suggestion. 🙂 (You think it’s tough to find amore with young uns, just wait until they’re teenagers.)
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Hi Greta,
I can’t imagine that added economical stress of putting a child into college right now. I don’t know how anybody does it.
I wish that it were easier to go off with my children, one at a time. I don’t know how anybody manages to do that either!
Really? It gets even more difficult as the kids get older. SHIIIIITTTT!
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Hi Jillian. Let me lighten up your day, kids will always spoil amore. Even adult ones can give you your moments and mention amore to them and they make you feel like the dirtiest woman on earth.
Having said that, they are good teachers, they do have the ability to carry me beyond the ‘not so good’ every day appearances and show me what is beyond them. It is a pity though that we worry and let ourselves get into doom and gloom to miss out on the joy of life.
Every time when I worried and missed out on the fun of sunny days, afterwards I realized it was never necessary to worry that much. Even when the worst came to the worst I somehow lived through it and got beyond. What I afterwards did regret was having worry let me spoil my days. Worry never helped or did anything, it just made me lose something I did not have to lose.
It has been a hard and difficult lesson to learn but I am adamant to keep learning it and to stop losing beautiful days to worry.
And aren’t those special days with children treasures. Those I always remember best and so will they no doubt.
xox Wilma
.-= Wilma Ham´s last blog ..Me and out-of-integrity family. =-.
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