The first few years of my grief journey were filled with really rough nights and marginal days. There were nights I held the side of the mattress and willed myself to make it to morning with my sanity held somewhere near intact. It was so incredibly difficult, but then morning would come and the anxiety and fear would fade into the background a bit…only to return with a vengeance at sundown.

With time…and hard work…the really hard nights became bad nights and the days became better. The really hard nights faded eventually and I only had a bad night on occasion. Monday was one of those nights. The day had been stressful then just before bed, I found out someone I love dearly was unwell. And I ate too late. Bad combo and I just didn’t feel well.

I woke up yesterday with a massive headache and a stuffy head and I was afraid I’d picked up “a bug”, but…with a little movement and a little caffeine, I shoved the icky aside and moved on with my day. Mr. FixIt and I went out to the farm to make sure the heat was turned on and the pump was working. Last year the pump froze and it was an absolute mess to fix. We wanted to preempt that scenario by wrapping the pump and tank in heat tape to keep it from freezing. 

I lit the little gas stove in the bathroom to keep the pipes from freezing in there. And the furnace was already on so the house was perfectly warm. I turned off the dehumidifiers for the season, swept the floors, checked the mail, and we’re all good. I’ll get out there for a little R&R one of these days.

We got home in late afternoon. The sun sets earlier and earlier now. And it’s pretty darned chilly. I decided to open a jar of the vegetable beef soup I canned this year. I purposefully canned it rather bland so I could season it to my liking when I heat it up. I added a variety of seasonings, including just a dash of smoked chipotle pepper for a little zing. Oh, my gosh! It was SO good served with garlic Texas toast!

We have an errand in town today and I am certainly hoping it won’t turn into an all day ordeal. We may get our Covid booster while we’re at it.

We’re a good team.

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“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”

Hebrews 10:24 ESV