Holidays

Peace and love to you all.

My sincere apologies for the time between posts. It's not intentional but this last month has been a particularly rough one for our family. Starting with the anniversary on the 13th of June, then followed a week later by Father's Day, and then the Fourth of July, it was less of a month of celebration and more of an emotional crucible we had to endure. Going through these days that gave my dad so much joy and knowing how much he would have loved them was difficult, to say the least.

Father's Day...well, we had plans to do things to honor him. Cooking a prime rib roast. Doing Legos at the table. Watching his favorite movies. Things like that. We didn't do any of them. We couldn't. Even pulling the roast out of the freezer was tough for me. So, instead, we just cooked steaks and tried to get through it. 

The Fourth of July was also a struggle. It was always my dad's favorite holiday (aside from Christmas) and he would watch the fireworks on TV and outside, cook steaks and corn on the cob, watch 1776 on DVD, listen to patriotic music, and just feel an immense amount of pride and patriotism. He truly loved this country and it hurt to know that he couldn't celebrate it anymore. But we did the steaks, we did the corn, and we tried our best to be cheerful.

Now, thankfully, there aren't any holidays for a while. The next big event is my birthday and holy COW I am not going to think about that one right now. 

We're okay. We're not great. We're not what I would call thriving. But we are here and we love each other and we love our cats and we are making it through the days and even sometimes finding things to laugh about. We hug and make food and watch things on TV/movies and we just...live. It's not the same. It won't be the same. And it doesn't feel as much like living used to. But we're here and that may be enough.

I hope you all are living your best lives and are loving those close to you with all your hearts. I'll leave you with an apt quote.

​"Grief is the price we pay for love."
Queen Elizabeth II