A product of my mind

It seems like every year around this time, it hits all of us that the festivities have begun. Birthdays, baseball, Easter, summer, birthdays, and more birthdays. I think what most of us in this Family, have failed to realize, is that....the Festivities never end. It starts with Halloween, which in this family, due to the Pumpkin Patch, it starts the last week of September, from that point on until the last day in October, the vision of my Sister in Law is literally a blur. She is racing from one thing to the next, chasing after her three kids, maintaining the things she does for the patch, making sure every person in her family feels her love and attention, all the while working full time. Usually I feel guilty when I call and I can sense the urgency in her voice, and I take into account all that she has going on. Yet no matter what, if I call and she senses the urgency in my voice she lets all the balls drop, she stops, to listen, and makes me feel like I am the only person in her world, at that moment.

There are days, I get overwhelmed, there are days that I feel like I am barely keeping up. Then I stop and think of her, think of all the balls she has in the air, how much she has to juggle all at once, while still loving herself, still maintaining herself and making herself a priority. It is a demanding job, it is a hard job. Going to work, sometimes feels like a break. I know this for her and I know this for myself.

Then I remind myself that these are the best years of our life, if we endure them and race through them, they will be gone. We have our children that bring us more joy than we could ever imagine, we have our Husbands who make us feel more special than any other woman, we have our families that make us feel like we are important, AND we have our sisters, our sister-in-laws, our girlfriends, who make us feel like a woman, a mom, a person, that no matter what we have going on in our lives, we are normal. Chances are we are far more normal then sometimes we accept. We all fall victim at one point or another, its human nature, its at this point that truly matters, when you pick yourself up and realize we are stronger than that, we are not "victims". We are living our lives with every fiber of our being, we are telling our story. For every hurdle we cross, we get stronger, for every lesson we learn, we get wiser. We are the center of our families, we are there when our children are sick, when our husbands need to vent, we are there for support, we are there to laugh, to love, to observe, to engage, to praise, to discipline.

Theres a bond between us women, no matter what the tie is. There is a bond that has its own uniqueness. It does not replace, the bond between husband and wife, nor does it replace the bond between Mother and child, it has its own place. Each bond with each woman in our life, has its own place, its own meaning, its own importance. Each one different and just as fulfilling.

My sister stayed the night with me the weekend before last. Both our lives are busy, it takes an effort to get together. I like to blame this on the miles between us, its just not as convenient. No matter how long we go between visits, when we get together, its like we are little girls again, we are sisters. I cherish the time we get together. We made dinner together, and it was easy, we stayed up later than everyone else, to decorate. We woke earlier than everyone else, to share a cup of coffee. She helped me prepare for the festivities of the day ahead. It was special and I hated watching her leave.

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garretty

This post which turned into a tribute to women was supposed to be about Taylor's birthday brunch. I had a point, I started the post with the outline that was to lead to my point. It seems as though this post was supposed to be about something else. I would go back and change the beginning to make it fit more to what the post ended up being about, but Im not, Im going to leave it and title it a product of my mind today. The funny thing is, you might read this and think I just might be a little down. This is not the case, I am not, busy yes, focused yes, but not down. I have a bond with my sister in law, its hard to explain, its special, I sometimes take it for granted, I sometimes get so caught up in the feeling of it, it makes me stop. This is what happened today. She inspires me, she lifts me up, she gets me, and at the same time, I have this urge to ease her load, so to speak. We have a relationship that is the same as if she has always been my sister. We laugh, we cry, we have differences, we agree, we disagree, and we can make fun of eachother with a light heart that isn't criticizing.

Sometimes our hearts get tangled And our souls a little off-kilter Friends and family can set us right And help guide us back to the light. ~Sera Christann

Please note this post is not to take away from any importance our better halves (our husbands) role is in our families and our lives. This post was about Mothers and sisters and women. This is just a point that we have different avenues that fill our cup at different moments in our lives.