Gifts in many forms

I received many gifts this weekend.

• My baby's arm was miraculously healed by the divine waters of our local community center, where she's taking swim lessons.
• We received affirmation from "the good priest" of our parish that we are not evil for owning an iPhone and a Corvette and a lovely house.
• I got to see my adorable little niece.
• I won a prize for seating myself in the right spot at a baby shower (that's where the actual, beautifully-wrapped gift above came from).
• My little family laughed a lot.
• I ate awesome grilled vegetables with people I love. I think they were so good because they were grilled with love.
• I learned that people we adore are finally moving home.
• I took a whole hour to work out at the gym (versus my normal 30 minutes).
• Zozer and I made rice krispie treats for our family. She loves it because she gets to make a delicious goody to eat. I love it because I'm with her. I appreciate these little moments of togetherness, knowing that some day she'll grow up and leave and have her own full life.

Good stuff.

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We took Zoe to her swim lessons Saturday morning and carefully unwrapped the arm, explaining that we had to remove the cast because it couldn't get wet. She asked if she could have it back right after her lesson and we said we'd see. Within five minutes of her lesson starting she stopped favoring her arm and was using it normally. She hung from the side of the pool with it (outside the water, supporting her entire body weight). She did her "big arms" strokes with her instructor. She splashed and waved and danced. Then, when she was finished, she asked for the cast again. "Nope! You're done!" She was fine with that verdict, and off we went, with nary a mention of it again.

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We spent some time at Grammy and Papa's that day, where lunch wound up being $5 hot & ready pepperoni pizzas from Little Caesars. OMG they were so delicious, but a major derailment on my mission to eat healthy and lose weight. I was grouchy after we left, and finally figured out it was a full onslaught of self-induced pizza guilt. So I dragged myself to the gym and went to town for an hour. I kicked pizza's ass on the treadmill and the elliptical, and I felt tons better afterwards.

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We ran to Target this weekend and somewhere in there Zoe found a small pink bead on the floor. We're desperately trying to break her of this habit of picking crap up off the floor/ground. She's been doing pretty well. When we were back in the car after shopping, she showed me the bead. We then had this conversation:

A: "Where did you get that bead?"

Z:

A: "Zo? Where did you get it? Is it from a school project or did you find it at Target?"

Z:

A: "Zozo! Where did you get that bead?" (I'm now turned around in the front seat to look at her.)

Z: "What will your answer be if I say 'Target?'"

With that my disciplinarian husband completely busted out laughing as he drove.

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At mass yesterday, we had our pastor. The "good priest." The man who married us and baptized our daughter. I love this priest. His homily completely undid the damage caused by the associate pastor's missives two weeks before. Msgr. P's message was that we're not bad people for having possessions. He said it's what you do with those possessions that count. Don't hoard things, don't be selfish. Use the gifts you have to help others. Wealth in and of itself is not inherently bad. It all comes down to how you live your life. This resonates with me.

After mass, we visited for a few minutes with the woman who takes care of the priests and the rectory. This woman is amazing. She's faith-filled and totally hilarious - not two things that always go together. She greeted us with, "I know. I know. I'm working on it." She calls the new associate pastor "His Holiness" and agreed that he's way too ardent. We had a fun conversation and I was again relieved to learn that I am not the only person completely offended by this priest. And the icing on the cake is that, because she works in the rectory, she sees the mass schedule posted. My FIL claims he's going to call her every Saturday and find out who has which mass, so we can make every effort to avoid His Holiness and get the sermons we need.

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I've been listening to an artist named Matt Maher a lot lately. Great stuff. He's got a fantastic song that has a refrain, "This is the first day...of the rest of your life..." What a phenomenal concept to think about. I listen to that and am inspired to move forward with purpose and love. Good things happening, all around. Good things. Dropped a couple pounds this past week, despite the pizza and some horrendously fat-filled food at the baby shower yesterday. Still, how can one live without cake?!