My Awesome Family

The pizza dough I made has been rising about an hour now, and is just about ready to be rolled out and transformed into delicious, homemade pizzas by my handsome husband. I am sitting on our couch, listening to the boys play Monopoly, and thankful they didn't insist on me playing, since I loathe the game with a passion. Justice and Aiden are playing happily with their blocks, Andrew is frying bacon {presumably to go on the pizzas} and the other children are occupied with watching the pizzas materialize. {Owen is actually rolling out a very small little lump of dough, imitating his daddy, and the others are instructing him. It's pretty stinkin cute.}

Though it is a little louder than I'd prefer, I am feeling pretty grateful right now.

The room I am sitting in was painted by my mom and sister this weekend. It makes me feel like I am sitting in a whole new house. See, I had painted it about five years ago, a chocolatey brown color. I liked it a lot, at the time. Now, though, I am living with a chronic illness that keeps me home a lot more than I used to be. What once felt like a warm room began feeling dark and oppressive.

I have read that people are sensitive to light, or the lack thereof, so much so that not getting enough light can actually cause depression. I fully believe this is true.

The living room and hallway are now a light, peachy beige.

And when I look at it, I remember that my family really loves me. My mom and sister did not have to use up one of their weekends after working full-time all week to come up here {a four hour drive, one way} and work the whole weekend on my house. But they did. And they did a really great job, by the way.

I kind of lost it a little bit, in fact. My mom had me ride with her to the store to pick up a couple things, and when we were getting out of the car, I happened to glance over and see a little paperback book, face down, in the middle of the two front sears in the car. It caught my eye because I thought it looked familiar, so I turned it over. It was Lisa Copen's book, Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways To Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend. I had written about it in this blog post, a couple weeks ago. I had strongly recommended it to anyone who wanted to love, encourage and understand a friend or family member with chronic illness.
My mom quickly grabbed the book out of my hand, calling me nosy, or some other silly thing. But I had seen. "Christin bought the book?" I asked, voice a little trembly.

It made me cry. This one little thing spoke volumes to my heart. I never asked her to buy the book. But her wanting to understand, to bless and help... it was just another gesture that screamed- YOUR FAMILY LOVES YOU. It also made me realize my sister regularly reads my blog. I didn't actually know that, but I think it is pretty awesome.

My family is awesome. My heart feels full.

And that is really something amazing to be grateful for.