Like I mentioned yesterday, there was a lot packed into this weekend.
On Friday night, the girls and I met Boom for an early park play and dinner (at dusk...beautiful sunrays). Then Callie got to have a sleepover at Boom's house. They made pumpkin rice krispie bars, did some Halloween-themed coloring, and visited Elliott, among many other fun things.
Then there was Halloween.
Before all the festivities started, there was dance class. Callie is working on her tap skills...and it was pretty adorable in her Wonder Woman costume.
IMG_0239 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.
When it was finally time for trick-or-treating, the girls were raring to go. Boom, G-ma and Pa came over. I stayed home with wine and passed out candy.
Due to lack of sleep and too much sugar, there were tantrums today. And yesterday.
And that's all I'll say about that. :)
So then today. All Saints Day.
During nap time I took Mary out to the cemetery. We visited Dad's plaque first (she brought lovely flowers), and then drove around for a little bit. On the other side of the cemetery (it is HUGE), we came upon this tree. All of the other trees in the area were completely dead with no leaves left. But this one...it still had all it's leaves in beautiful and vibrant colors.
It kind of took my breath away a little bit. Another reminder of hope.
My mom, sisters, Craig and I went to a grief talk our church sponsored this afternoon. Then we went to the 5:00 church service, where Chris and the Suurmeyer family joined us.
We knew it would be tough, because they read the names of all those from our congregation who have died this year. Dad's name was in the middle of the list.
It was also special because Pastor Kris, who preached, read my blog post from Friday. And she reached out to me to ask if she could quote part of it in her sermon. She told me that it helped her message being able to share someone's genuine and real experience of grief and learning.
After the service she brought our group up to a room to show us a new piece of artwork. It was bought with the undesignated money people gave to the church in memory of my dad. The piece is titled "Celebration," and is colorful and vibrant. Then we all went back to the condo to have dinner together...and I had to get a picture of mom's centerpiece.
It was, all in all, a meaningful day and a hard day.
It's a new month on the calendar, and that is hard too. But life flows on.
I'll leave you with one of my go-to songs that is pretty appropriate for this day:
"When the Saints" by Sara Groves
No comments:
Post a Comment