Trying to Stay Strong

"You don't know how strong you are until strong is your only choice."  

This is a very timely quote I came across recently.  It has me wondering, though, what does 'strong' look like.

I started listing all of the other things in my life right now that require me to be strong, but it was becoming too personal so I deleted them.  It was cathartic, though, to write it all down.  Lately my life has been filled with things that require me to be the strong one, the fixer of misfortune, the organizer of the chaos, the person to help out in a pinch or the shoulder to lean on.  Any one of the things might not seem like much, but collectively I feel like I have tremendous weight on my shoulders.  Most days I'm able to keep a positive outlook.  But there are those days, mostly when I've not slept well the night before, I feel overwhelmed and just want someone to take care of me for once instead of expecting me to be the one who makes everything OK.  I want someone to give me a hug and let me lean on their shoulder for a few minutes or have someone call me out of the blue to ask me how I'm doing or have someone do a favor for me or just have someone show me how much they appreciate me.

Not sure this constitutes 'strong' but is it human.

Thanks for bearing with me during this little rant.  Now onto the usual blog stuff.

Mother's Day was a bit of a downer. (OK, the rant is continuing for a little while longer.  Sorry.)  Partly because my mom is gone (2 years now) and I'm still missing her terribly and partly because I feel like I was 'ghosted' by my own kids.  In the morning we went to Mansfield to have brunch with the in-laws.  It was nice but it was all for the MIL, not me.  After we got back home they left to go back to their apartments.  Later in the day Ed and I went for a walk to try to cheer me up.  It was a nice stroll along the river.  Afterwards we picked up some Chinese food for dinner.

I finished a couple scrub tops for Trisha.  She plans on stopping by this evening so we'll see how they fit.  I have fabric for two others.

 

I volunteered to coordinate this year's raffle quilt for my quilting group.  I selected the pattern and began sorting the fabric.  One of the other members acquired crates of Civil War reproduction fabric.  I sorted 4 bins of fabric selected 10 color groups for the pattern.  Next step is to cut the fabric for the 12 star blocks.

The ride to/from Mansfield last Sunday allowed me to get a few more inches done on a pair of socks.  I bought this yarn back in March around St. Patrick's Day.  It has a bit too much white in it but I do like how the colors play together.

If you've put up with me through this whole post, thank you.