Callie was SUPER excited to show me the pictures she made today.
Here they are (with her own original captions).
"This is lots of flowers"
"This is my hand"
(She asked me how to spell 'this', which is up in the corner)
"This is just me"
"Me doing a lot of poops on the potty"
And my personal favorite:
"Us in the jungle with coconuts falling on us"
I have ZERO artistic ability, so I'm curious if the girls will have more of that interest than me. I kind of hope so, because I want to see more original artwork. It is adorable.
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.
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:
As I mentioned yesterday, this has been a hard and sad week with the loss of my Grandma on Wednesday. It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions since Sunday evening, when she really started the process of leaving this world.
My sisters, parents and I were able to all spend time with her on Sunday night. We thought that was going to be it. Then she rallied a little bit on Monday. I was thankful to have had the day off so Maya and I could go and spend time with her and my parents that day.
Favorite Thing #1: Grandma was able to watch Maya play. I hope it gave her
some comfort and entertainment, even though she was so tired and uncomfortable.
I was in regular contact with my parents throughout the day on Tuesday and we knew that it wouldn't be long. I was able to be distracted at work, and then we distracted ourselves in the evening as well.
Favorite Thing #2: Even though I was struggling emotionally, the girls were
able to cheer me up with their adorableness and excitement about pet store animals.
I got the call early Wednesday morning. I took yet another day off of work, sent the girls to G-ma's house, and spent the day with my parents and sisters. We spent time in Grandma's apartment, went out to lunch, my sisters and I got manicures (with purple polish- my Grandma's signature color!), and we enjoyed being together as our original family of 5. But I was very happy to see my girls when I got home from a very bittersweet day.
Favorite Thing #3: Enjoying the view from Grandma's apartment.
Enjoying a goofy face at the end of the day.
The girls' routines did not change this week. They were lucky enough to be able to still hang out with Pa, G-ma, and Boom. I told Callie that Gi-Gi went up to heaven, but she doesn't really get it (obviously). Her first question was, "Was she 100?" And when I told her that Gi-Gi was 91, she responded, "I thought you died when you were 100." I said something like "No, some people die before that." And then she asked me to get her breakfast. I wonder how much she'll remember about her great-grandma.
Favorite Thing #4: The comfort of normal routines and family support.
When I knew my grandma wasn't doing well on Tuesday, I shared about it a little bit with my friend Amanda. We ended up talking a little about Callie's butterfly artwork and then about how butterflies are a sign of transcendence and new life. She sent me a link about butterfly symbolism, and the first thing it said was this:
"According to Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly was seen in Japan as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you."
So imagine my surprise and delight when, as we were looking through Grandma's jewelry on Wednesday (after she passed away), I came across two butterfly pins. And then on our walk tonight, I took some pictures of the beautiful sunset. And when I came home to look at the pictures on the computer, it appeared to me like the line of the trees was the bottom of a butterfly.
Favorite Thing #5: Butterflies.
The sunset butterfly may be all in my head, but when I sketched it out, it looked
enough like a butterfly for me to be happy.
We will be spending this weekend preparing for the celebration of her life that will be taking place on Tuesday. Thank you for all the thoughts, prayers and condolences. They really mean a lot to me and my family.
