Happy Halloween!

It's the little things...

It 's been a long hard fall, but we are hanging in there. Fitz has reminded me daily that I have not written on this blog in quite a while. I can use the excuse of being busy... an all too real excuse lately, but the reality is, I just haven't had the emotional energy. Beyond being physically drained, my brain has just been trying to process the last month or so. Nothing bad, just life.  I like to remind him that he has not been the most prolific of bloggers either, but he beat me to it and posted the eulogy he wrote for his mum. A beautiful read, I must say.

This fall has reminded me once again what an incredibly supportive group of friends we have. With all that we went through, people were constantly doing many, many little things to make our life easier.  The wake for my mother in law was scheduled from 4-8pm. A very long stretch of time for a group of young kids. Rob, a good friend and fellow teacher of Fitz's, stopped by early on. He lives very close to the funeral home, and offered to take whichever of our kids wanted to walk his new puppy and go back to his house for pizza. A small offering in his eyes, but a huge help in ours.

It had me thinking on the way home of how many times people reach out to us, quietly, simply, and without reservation. It's Wednesday, our normal spaghetti night, which we kept up right through the midst of all this. I've written about Wednesdays, and how much I love them. We tell people they don't need to bring a thing, but people almost always drop by with a bottle of wine, a loaf of garlic bread, or a dessert. Our friend Tom though, almost always shows up with a gallon of milk. Sometimes he even has a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs. He never says a word, just quietly puts the milk in the fridge. He knows we are feeding an army every day, and that gallon of milk, a small offering on his part, is another huge gift to us.

Our friend Drew will most likely make an appearance tonight as well. At our last Memorial day party, there was a small crew of us sitting by the fire late night. Fitz and I laughed that this was the first year we were both working the next day, and the mess would have to wait. I came home the next day and stood speechless in our backyard. It was completely cleaned up. Bottles recycled, trash bagged, platters and dishes stacked on the picnic table. I found out a few days later that Drew had stopped by. He was free the next day, and knew how tired we would be. This was no small thing, although Drew tried to tell us it was no big deal. 

I could write for pages about the small things people have done in the last couple of months. The rides people gave our kids to soccer practices, the meals friends dropped over, the outings people picked up our kids for, the list could go on and on.  If anything at all has come out of this for me, it's that I am reminded to do the little things. To hold the door for the woman with the double stroller at the store, to let the car out in front of me that has been waiting for a while,  To pick up the neighbors trash barrels that have blown over in the wind. Each might not feel like a big thing, but I personally know that those little things can be big to the recipient. I am incredibly thankful to all those amazing people in our life who do these little things.