Last week, everything fell apart. Marilee got Covid, which came with a fever approaching 105. The car broke down and needed to be taken in for a two-day repair an hour away with no loaner car available. We had a school delay. It was slushy and wet outside. Oh, and it was also Marilee’s birthday. And Peter’s birthday. And we were supposed to be going away with extended family for a weekend I had been responsible for planning for the past six months. 

So I didn’t get any work done and I worried and worried about Marilee and spun around and around in my head about the future and how I will never get anything done if the weather and the appliances and the children always need my attention.

And then Marilee got better. And I got the car back. And we drove up to Lake Placid and met up with my mom, and one of my sisters and her family, and Peter’s brother and his family. And I remembered all sorts of reasons to be thankful.

• Snowshoeing in fresh powder.
• Driving through a valley with walls of snow and ice towering overhead.
• Watching Penny take care of her two-year-old cousin Cora.
• Celebrating Marilee’s birthday with lemon cupcakes her brother baked.
• Starting a good book. (Mary Louise Kelly’s It. Goes. So. Fast.)
• Three generations working on a one-thousand piece puzzle together.
• Listening to my sister and sister-in-law talk about their lives. 
• Watching William ice skate for the first time in years. 
• Introducing our cousins to Scattergories.
• Sleeping late. 
• Seeing the world through the eyes of a two-year-old. 

My ordinary life will always have the frustrating interruptions of illness and weather and broken things. But this weekend was a reminder that it could also have the delightful interruptions of wonder and beauty and joy.

MORE WITH AMY JULIA:

It’s Always Too Much | Four Thousand Weeks

Retreating and Reimagining

Recap of Holiday Fun

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