Are you a foodie?
Have you ever eaten something that brings tears to your eyes?
This homemade cake in our small town by a lady who chose to love on me extravagantly did.

I guess another thing that often brings tears to my eyes is the gifts our girls make us… my 8-yr old made a pair of “slippers” for me— and even though I can’t wear it, it warms my heart to know how she longs so much to bless me with what we’ve blessed her with 😭😭😭

Thank you also to many of you who dropped notes of affirmation regarding this… these sort of hateful comments are a bit difficult to read from time to time… but it opened up a great conversation for us to share with our kids what online bullying is, what it looks like, how to respond.
None of us are perfect, and if anyone has anything to gripe about, I think climbing the ladder of integrity is important- that’s a Pete Scazzero technique of having an open honest convo with the person directly.

And lest we all think breakthrough is an overnight win… it isn’t. Just an hour short of midnight, I got really triggered and upset that my body was still experiencing a flashback moment from dogs barking at 830pm… I had a bit of a meltdown and was tempted to say I botched the birthday, see it’s like this every year, it’s horrible… but I was reminded by Cliff and 2 good friends that recovery and grief are not linear, and there was a lot in the day to celebrate as wins.
I hope you can be likewise gentle and kind to yourself too. One wobbly moment doesn’t make the whole day or your whole life bad.