Life Thoughts

 My personal family tree is a little odd looking.  My parents each have one sister, and neither sister has children.  So my two brothers and I were the only grandchildren on both sides of the family, and we have zero first cousins.

My parents have cousins and their cousins have children so I do have a variety of second and third cousins, and first cousins once removed. 

Anyway, I have a male second cousin (I think that is what he is, second cousin) who lives in Florida with his wife and family. His wife has three children from a previous marriage and then three children with my cousin.  One of the older girls was in a terrible car crash a few days ago and was very seriously injured. By the grace of God, she survived the accident and is making steady improvement, which is such a relief to everyone who cares about her!  Praise God!!

I have been thinking (again) about how easy it is for me to get caught up and stressed about things that are not THAT important.  I mean, if one of our kids was in a bad accident, nothing else would be really important. Suddenly, how he or she was doing would be everyone's priority.

I find myself stressing about a lot of little stuff -- bathroom closets and Rose's reading and college details.  These are things I need to manage and persevere with, or they will never get done. But somehow I need to find a way to be calm and relaxed while still getting them done.  In my younger years, anxiety propelled me to work hard -- fear of failure mostly.  I am a hard worker and have been for as long as I remember, but I shouldn't need anxiety to push me along.  I am not nearly as anxious as I used to be (thanks to prayer, counseling, and Lexapro) but some weeks are still difficult. This is one of those weeks, I think partly because I have so many things going on outside the home.  I took the three boys to the orthodontist on Monday and tomorrow, TOMORROW, I take ALL seven kids still at home to the dentist. I must be CRAZY :-).

But it will get done :-).

But then I think of sweet S. in a hospital struggling with major life changing injuries and I realize that all of this is important but not worth worrying about, if that makes sense.