February 2022!

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

"There are moments that the words don't reach.

There is suffering too terrible to name.

You hold your child as tight as you can,

And push away the unimaginable.

The moments when you're in so deep

It feels easier to just swim down

The Hamiltons move uptown

And learn to live with the unimaginable."

~It's Quiet Uptown, Hamilton

(Clearly not a quote that describes my month,
but one of my favorite lyrics from Hamilton.)

FEBRUARY MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• Celebrating ALL the Birthdays:  Jace, Tate, Bill Lemiuex, Blake, Wesson, Nash, Rachael, Waverly, Nancy, Miles, Anthony, me, Ellie, and baby Emberly (born 2-22-2022 at 22:22 military time)!!
• LIFE-GIVING:  Creating a family drawing for Anthony's 10th birthday for Kristin, taking over the Aspyn Arrows February posts for Lindsay, cleaning out my files and reading through old cards, writing and getting a lovely response from Eddie Kaufholz, bringing dinner to the Fultons in a stressful time, driving and talking with T-man, embracing 38 and feeling very loved by family and friends in my birth-month, Peloton workouts, talking with Judge about adoption plans, starting the process to be approved with DHS, reconnecting with my former Compassion child (now 22) on Facebook, Sarah's brother being found, my first two trips out of state since 2019, first time catching up with lots of extended family, seeing Hamilton live, connected conversation, snow days, messaging with Amanda about Bells Palsy (being able to offer meaningful comfort and advice there), starting Noom and feeling hopeful about it!
• LIFE-DRAINING:  The sudden tragic death of Davonne, Sarah's brother going missing for a while, the Russian attack on Ukraine*, needless stress over a minor decision in a group text, disconnected small talk, a few too many Peloton rest days (aiming for self-care, but the workouts are so good for my mental health).

HAPPY LISTS

I Listened To:

• Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brene Brown
• Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians
• The usual favorite podcasts

I Watched:  

• Hamilton! (live performance in Little Rock, Arkansas)
• Sweet Magnolias season 2 on Netflix -- ugh, why do I put myself through that??  Could Dana Sue BE more annoying!? lol
• Frasier reruns - fun!
• A Few Good Men, The Other Guys, What Happens in Vegas, The Hangover, Sweet Home Alabama, Liar Liar, Nathan Chen's gold medal Olympic skate, and the Dr. Dre led Super Bowl Halftime show!

I'm Celebrating:  

• Being 38 and having the opportunity to pursue a meaningful future
• Starting NOOM toward the end of this month... a psychology-based health and weight loss program that zeroes in on limiting beliefs and concentrates on the mental side of it!
• One holiday and FOUR courthouse-closure weather days this month!!

February has long been my favorite month, but something was a bit off this year.  Although it was mostly packed with fun events and birthdays and seeing friends and family I hadn't seen in a while, I struggled with some heightened anxiety and felt extra thankful for the snow days and downtime!  So this gif of Jennifer Lawrence being so excited to win the award then falling on her way to get it feels appropriate for this month. lol  Lots of anticipation and lots of real goodness and gratitude, but also feeling a bit unsteady and not quite myself at times.  

*Side Note:  I've seen several people share a post on FB that starts with "To the people who are asking, 'Why does Ukraine matter?'" then it goes on to list their rankings in various things and several big imports and exports and accomplishments.  I may be missing or misunderstanding something, but the tone of the post annoys me.  Who are the morons actually asking why an entire country matters!??  And how is the correct answer anything other than, "Because human beings live there."  Why are we listing off the reasons they might matter to Vladimir as if that's also the reason they should hold value in our eyes?  It's obnoxious to me, and by that calculated reasoning, unborn lives really don't matter.  The people of Ukraine should matter to us because they matter to God, full stop.  So that's my mini-rant for today.  Feeling somewhat powerless as we watch a power-hungry dictator seek power over more of the world, but reminding myself that God has the ultimate power, and praying for Ukraine and praying for government leaders across the world.

Anyway, that was a long tangent for the end of my February recap post.  

I hope it's been a good month for you.  And tomorrow, we're "March"-ing on!  ;-)