Life

Life is so busy right now. So much to do. So much to be thankful for. Soon we will celebrate Drew's first birthday. One year of his smiles, his laughs and his milestones. A year of many ups and a few downs. A year that tested our strength...and brought us closer to God.

Right now, I am busying myself with three things, in addition to the normal day to day Drew activities and household things:

Our IMH Chapter
Drew's Birthday Party
Applying to become a Child Life Specialist

I have so enjoyed this time with Drew, not having to work, and will still have many more months of this, but I have also decided to return to work as a Child Life Specialist. I have always wanted to work with children, and kind of got away from that for awhile. For those of you who don't know, my BA is in Psychology and I have my Masters in Social Work. I used to be a family therapist, a long time ago, and I worked a lot with kids. While doing this, I would be at CHM with a lot of my kids for various reasons and I always loved the job those in Child Life did. I thought it was so meaningful and awesome. Since I feel I have time to choose what I want to do when I return to work, I am taking this opportunity to go in a new direction...but still very similar. So, right now, I am getting my transcripts in order to have my coursework approved by the Child Life Council. Next step is volunteer hours. Then, in September, my application will be turned in to Children's Hospital of Michigan for a winter internship. Thus, all summer, I will be working on that application, in addition to having summertime fun with Drew, Bill and Maggie. This will be hard work, no doubt, and there are no promises...but I feel good about it. I feel good about the choices I am making lately to start a chapter of IMH and go in a different path in my professional life. I feel these choices will make me a better Mom in the end.

Bill and I are both busy with the house as well. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have a lot we would like to get done on the house this summer. So, I started today on the basement. Wow, what a nightmare. I need the Clean Sweep crew, but thankfully I am following their guidelines and it seems to be making life a bit easier. We just have so much STUFF. We are both packrats, which is bad, and things just need to GO. There are many families who could benefit from what we no longer need. It's time to get these items out of here and into homes that need them. It is so nice to see space where there once was clutter. It's therapeutic in a way...letting go. It's nice.

Drew and I took a walk yesterday evening...I just love evenings in the spring and summer. He fell asleep toward the end of it (about 2 miles), but woke up once we got home. He played in the bath for a bit, then had his bottle and book. During his prayers, I started thinking about my own childhood prayers. Drew's are a combination of Bill's and my childhood prayers. Here are Drew's nighttime prayers:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

Guide me safely through the night,

And wake me with the morning light.

God Bless Grandma and Grandpa,

Grandpap, Grandma Lorie and Grandma Calvano,

All my Aunts and Uncles,

All my Cousins and Friends.

God Bless Mommy and Daddy, and Maggie too.

God Bless me, help me to sleep very nicely

and help me to continue to recover well.

Amen.

The first part is all Bill's, although I had the prayer hanging on my bedroom wall, and the second part is mine and his combined. I also had the line "help me to be a really good girl" which just makes me laugh. Only my Grandma would have a child, when she is 2-5 years old, pray to be good. I miss her...she was one in a million, I tell you.

Alright, this post is getting long and rambling...I pray all of you are having good days and happy times. May God bring comfort to those who need it.

Much love!