Beauty in the Mess ~ Edition 12.20.14

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It’s been a truly blessed couple of weeks.

We found out just before Thanksgiving that Russ had been offered a job as a government employee. His new job would start December 15th, which gave us several more weeks to just be together as a family without stressing out about actually finding a job. Granted, the weeks of “vacation” were unpaid, but restful just the same.

My brother, who is also Russell’s best friend, came in for the whole week of Thanksgiving. During that time, we saw a movie together, played games, and decorated for Christmas.

Since then, we’ve been busy enjoying this Christmas season as a family. Russ and I have also put in a lot of hours at our son’s therapeutic program participating in observations, counseling, and coaching sessions. None of these things would have been possible had Russ been working, so all of this happened at at really good time.

There was definitely a lot of beauty in unemployment, for the short time which we experienced it.

Russ started his new job this week. He’s mostly just gone through orientation and we won’t quite know how the day-to-day of the job will go until after Christmas. But the job is definitely a lot less stressful than his old job, which is exactly what this family needed.

Here are some of the other beautiful things we have experienced in the last few weeks:

There was beauty in wear-camo-eat-free night at ChickFilA, in which I enjoyed seeing my man in uniform again:

There was beauty in lots of leaf fun in late November:

There was so much beauty in watching Ezra advocate for himself and choosing to breathe and calm down in a moment of frustration, designating the steps between our yard and our neighbors’ his “calming steps.”

There was beauty in several dates with my love at Starbucks,
and new red travel mugs!

There was beauty and so much excitement in Ezra making serious progress in meeting his goals at school. At the end of each day, he is assigned a level (I, II, or III) for how well he met his goals. He had FIVE Level III days, which resulted in him receiving a promised reward of a new hotwheels racetrack which he picked out at ToysRUs.

At ToyRUs the boys also spent quite a bit of time in the Star Wars section. I’m so glad that they have this “thing” that is just theirs to enjoy.

There is beauty in having family in town so that we can actually take a family picture that’s NOT a selfie:

There is beauty in seeing Ezra improve in fine motor skills and his ability to participate in undesired activities for longer periods of time. Ezra has never been a fan of playdough but it is great for him to strengthen his hands which will ultimately help him catch up in writing skills.

Here’s a turkey we made just before Thanksgiving:

And his name:

There is beauty in having a mother-in-law who really must need to do more babysitting because she obviously has too much time on her hands if she has time to make this turkey cheeseball for Thanksgiving dinner:

There is beauty in Ezra practicing drawing “Feelings Faces” in therapy. I loved what he said this face meant:

I never thought I would say this, but there is beauty in Ezra wanting to watch Thomas again. It used to be his favorite show and then some, but over the last year he’s been completely disinterested! Until a few weeks ago when we found some NEW Thomas movies on Netflix. This evening, Daddy was out so we had snacks and popcorn for dinner with a side of Thomas!

There is beauty in a mommy-son date after school before an appointment. And these eyes:

There is beauty in going to ChickFilA as a reward for his 5th Level III day and “just happening” to go on the same day as Santa was visiting. Ezra asked Santa for a pretend sleigh made out of boxes, pretend reindeer made out of boxes, and to be Santa.

There is beauty in Ezra finally deciding that he actually likes cereal with milk ON it (as opposed to dry cereal). Bring on the Rice Krispies!

There is beauty in making this boy’s hair all spikey, just for some silly fun:

And this week, although we were very sad that a sudden stomach virus kept Ezra from going to his last day of school and getting to participate in his super-fun Christmas party, there is beauty in giving Christmas gifts early and watching Mary Poppins!

Now we are heading into what we expect will be a very beautiful Christmas week! What beauty have you seen in your life this week?