Counting blessings

The past few days have been filled with many opportunities to reflect on life. On Friday, I attended a fundraiser for a 6-year-old girl with Stage 4 cancer. That same day, a friend's wife lost her long-fought battle with the disease.

Over the weekend, I corresponded with two online friends, both of whom are struggling with their own personal demons, leading them to question whether or not their lives have worth or meaning.

And yesterday, the father of one of my daughter's friends was killed in a car accident. He was a devoted husband and father of two young girls, and only a few years older than I am.

At times like these, I have to remind myself to step back and look at the bigger picture, to see beyond the darkness of these troubling days.

So today, I'm going to take some time to focus on the blessings that I have in my life: a healthy family, good friends, and the drive to keep appreciating these things, especially in the face of tragedy.

Ah...solitude!

Today marks the first time I've been alone in the house since February 12th, the day before we left for our cruise. It's been quite a roller coaster.

The cruise was wonderful--relaxing, lots of quality time with the kids, great food--but we crashed back down to reality pretty quickly. My youngest daughter ended up catching some sort of nasty skin virus on her face (we think it may have come from a dirty snorkel mask at Caya Levantando in the Dominican Republic) and our first week home was spent going to doctor after doctor to nail down a diagnosis and get the proper treatment for her. It was harrowing at times, complicated by the fact that my eldest daughter and my husband also came down with something post-cruise, running fevers and feeling congested and generally miserable.

Not a fun week in my household, that's for sure.

The good news is, one week, 8 prescriptions and $220 in co-payments later, every one seems to be on the mend.

We had a snow day yesterday, but now, everyone is back to school, and things are finally resembling something akin to "normal" around here.

Not a moment too soon.