The ups and downs of life

This past Wednesday was one bad day for me and Eden. We were just both really cranky, and well, it was just one of those rotten days that people just have sometimes. During and after that day, I was feeling very low about how things were going with Eden and feeling like a major failure as a mother.

The next day was Brant's off day from teaching, so he graciously took Eden to school with him for the day. He has done this before, and while he works on lesson preparation, Eden plays in his office and even takes a little nap there too. They also had lunch at the college, and they went and fed the fish in the big fish pond on campus.

Then Friday came around, and we had a pretty uneventful and good day. And now today is Saturday. I woke up this morning out of an awful dream where I was a prisoner of war doing menial jobs as a servant, and in my dream I was separated from my family and had no idea where they were or if they were safe or together or even alive! I woke up to the sounds of Nita cooing happily in her crib, so I grabbed her up for some sweet snuggle time and thought about my dream a bit and the fact that it could be now and most likely has been a reality for some woman somewhere. Wow did that make me realize just how good my life is! I'm so thankful that I'm together with my family and not a prisoner of war somewhere!

So, that's how my day started, and I was just so thankful for my Eden girl today instead of worrying over the problems from our bad day a few days ago. Eden and I went out shopping today, and we had such a sweet time together! It's such a blessing to have a sweet little shopping partner like her, and I'm glad she and I had the privilege of spending that time together today - "Just You and Me" - as one of her children's books is called. That book is one of Eden's favorite books. We went out for lunch, did some shopping mostly for spring/summer clothes for her, went to get a few essentials at another store, and ended our shopping trip with getting some ice cream - a mother/daughter favorite of ours! It reminds me of my shopping trips with my mom when I was a girl - such special memories that I hope to pass on to my girls.

Here's a recent picture of Eden. On a whim, I did her hair up like this, and it reminded me of Pippi Longstocking. She sort of acted Pippi-ish that day too - must be something about the hair! I've noticed that how Eden's hair is done affects her behavior sometimes.

PS - This is my 100th blog post!