When you are at your most relaxed, that’s when you should put together a list, a journal page, or even a note on your phone of the things you know you NEED in order to stay in a thriving state. ![]() So when life gets too busy, it’s important to lean on previously determined plans and skills so we can still thrive. A plan to equip us to thrive through the busy not simply survive. It’s when your schedule, demands upon your life at home and work weigh down on you, and you can’t seem to come up for air. That’s the essence of what I mean by busy. How perfect is the example? Am I right? Being too busy to enjoy ourselves. I love how Oxford defines it and I love their example sentence even more. A word that we use to describe our life sometimes. Let’s consider the word busy as an adjective for the sake of today’s conversation. Press in with me to these ideas and hopefully you can add them to your arsenal to equip you in advance of your next busy week. So let me share some things I’ve learned along the way. I have a bachelor’s in organizational management, a masters in education, have been married and cultivated a family for 18 years. I have never been a fan of telling others “it can always be worse”, but I am certainly not afraid to remind myself that because it certainly can.I’ve spent spent nearly two decades in the field of education doing everything from providing childcare, leading classrooms full of children of all ages, facilitating adult training, and coaching other teachers. Most importantly, we will not feel sorry for ourselves. We will eventually forget about that time that Kaden wasn't growing fast enough, but for now, we will be scared, we will be grateful, we will be brave, and we most certainly will get through this chapter in our book together. We will manage the reflux that is causing him to spit up too much, and we will adjust feeding schedules and formula to water ratios. While we want our little guy to be undeninably thriving, we are fortunate that we have great doctors around us and this is all we are dealing with. ![]() And those children’s parents worlds ARE crumbling around them right now. See, Kaden is not in eminent danger, but other children are. I certainly wish life would hand out reminders that don’t impact my children, but I needed the reminder that it’s not okay to take things for granted. It might sound weird to say out loud, but I needed this reminder. In fact, since that appointment, he has already gained 3.5 ounces and our doctor is satisfied (more like thrilled) with his progress just by making a few minor adjustments. We are certainly not out of the woods yet, and we have a lot more work to do, but we are on the right track now. But, they are now distant memories and I have faith that this will be, too. I had to remind myself on my way home that we have faced fears related to our kids before, and those issues at the time made us feel like the world was crumbling around us. But I know no so deep down inside she was panicked, too and that made me hurt more. She knew I still had a long drive ahead of me and the last thing I needed was panic. But I have known her since we were 12 and I knew she felt like I felt and just wanted to break down - together. She put on a brave face (voice) and said she was fine and she tried to sound convincing. I have the best wife in the world, and she tried her best to shield me from those feelings. The fear and concern was trumped only by the shame of being 4.5 hours away while Danielle faced the doctor to hear those words on her own. ![]() Danielle shared the feedback with me while in between meetings, and I am not sure there have ever been more jarring words hit my ears. Kaden has maintained a weight below his birth weight and the doctor classified him as “failing to thrive”. That is until Danielle took him to his 1-month check-up and first appointment flying solo due to me traveling for a work meeting. Aside from him spitting up quite a bit, which is not uncommon, we have really been finding our stride and feeling good about where we were. Additionally, I have received a lot of hate mail (joking) after admitting that since about two weeks old, he has been sleeping 7, 8, 9 hours every night. Over the past few weeks we have received an outpouring of love, support, and congratulations regarding the birth of our third child, and first boy, Kaden James. Those are words I have heard before and while I understand the practical meaning of them, I have never heard them be used in this context and I have never been so afraid of them.
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