A Beautiful Life

Our May was so beautiful. But beauty isn't always the same thing as pleasant is it?
There are have been flowers everywhere, farmers markets on the weekend, sunny days on the play set, yummy food experiments, but that's not a life, that's an instagram feed.

This month, life has actually been:
Adjusting back to the rhythm of life at home, and it hasn't been easy. 
Travel put wanderlust back into my veins, and You know the saying "travel broadens the mind"? Well, I'm having a hard time narrowing it back down to the size of our home.
I want to book tickets to see places, lots of places, and I want to go now, yesterday.
Iceland and Vienna with Kent (We are already had second thoughts about bringing the kids right away. It's definitely a place for hikes, volcanoes, hot springs, sled dogs, fermented shark - grownup adventure!). But maybe Dublin with the kids sounds fun, or the desert for some extreme heat, Leavenworth for the weekend, frozen yogurt for the evening...
Naturally, all but the frozen yogurt is unrealistic right now.
But I've been stir crazy and a little bored, a dangerous combination. I've started thinking maybe the grass is greener in Amsterdam, that pushing this swing is quite literally going to kill me of boredom, that maybe giving myself bangs is a good idea*.

On top of which, we've been working through a...let's call it a...  phase of learning with the kids. That will be the best way to put it here. Phase of learning. Character building. It's been a lot of sweat and tears at home as we confront the big lessons of respect and obedience. I know, I know, worth the sweat and tears, but I also know...I have half the amount of hair on my head than I did a couple weeks ago.

But I'll tell you what puts things back into proper perspective, driving your husband to the ER.
Kent had made us some homemade pave au chocolats over the weekend, which were amazing, and delicious, and he cooks new things on the weekend so he doesn't get antsy.
But a pastry of this caliber needs to be matched with a lot of insulin. And it just so happened that Kent got really sick soon after he ate his, and he threw up the food (that brings his blood sugar up), so all that he had left in his system at this point was a lot of insulin which drives blood sugar down. And he couldn't keep anything in his stomach that would bring it back up to a healthy level,  so we had a situation on our hands called Hypoglycemia. But not your mamby pamby case where you get cranky because your hungry, but serious, like a trip to the ER.
So we had a friend come sit on our couch while the kids slept, and I drove Kent to the hospital like I was on a racing circuit.
And let me tell you, The Type 1 diabetic in a pickle gets the royal treatment! He had nurses and Dr's on him quick as a flash, putting in IVs, taking blood, bringing juice, taking numbers, running tests, and administering the all important anti nausea pills to try to keep it all down.
And it worked like a charm. For Kent, but also for me.
It took so much of the frustrations I had had this last week, and replaced them with gratitude.
Gratitude! For quick and wonderful medical care, for Kent, for the kids healthy and sleeping in their beds, for alls well that ends well. (He really is fine now.)

The Lord was gentle with me, reminding me to be grateful. Being content, with what I have right now. That it really is enough. He gives us enough.
And that that's it, that's the key, the trick, and the lesson I am going to forget tomorrow.
That's what makes a beautiful life.


*WHICH IT ISN'T. Girls, you need to have a friend in place for just this occasion. Give her the right lines to say beforehand, sometime when you ain't talkin' crazy, and then call her, let her coach you through it.
"You are never going to look like Zooey Deschanel with your cowlick." "You will spend the next year using a flat iron, which you will loathe", "This will take 5 years to correct!"
Thankfully, my Meg was there when I needed her and she able to talk the scissors out of my hands. In the end I settled for painting my nails black, eating half a bag of cookies, and playing video games for a half hour, while letting the kids have full run of the house. Do you ever just want to do something dumb, knowing full well it's dumb?