
Hello everyone! I really need all the coffee this morning! I got up early and dragged Wyatt and I to an appointment that is tomorrow. Sigh. I need to remember to buy a planner for 2027 that is a Sunday start, because the one I have totally messes with me. I love it except for that.

We had my mother’s memorial service/celebration of life on Saturday. I had been a mess all week, running around trying to get things together, and the morning of I was so afraid no one would come. However, my heart was full as person after person walked into the church, filling the pews to the back. It was such a great outpouring of love for my mother, and I felt the service was beautiful. It was a service full of my mom. We played “Keep Me in Your Heart” by Warren Zevon, “In My Life” by the Beatles, and we had a bagpiper who played “Nearer My God to Thee” and “Amazing Grace”. I managed to get up and speak along with my niece Mermaid Girl, I was so proud of her. We walked up together and gave each other courage and strength. My cousin Brian delivered the eulogy, which was full of music and song that he related to my mother and stories and memories; my cousin Meghan read a poem, “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep”. And so many people got up and spoke! I had not seen that before and was surprised honestly. My mom would have been equally shocked lol. It was very cathartic for me, and I felt so at peace afterwards. As I sat in the church, I felt very enveloped in family and friends. Friends and family who I see and talk to daily, and friends and family that it has been too long since we talked, yet there they all were. It was good.
I didn’t do much talking but I did want to read something from the book The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest. I told you, that little middle grade book had some very soothing writing about grief. This is what I read:
“Grief is a thing with weight and bulk–perhaps the heaviest thing of all. It pushes at the edge of your soul, forcing it into a different shape. You can never fill it, because it is not empty. And it will not shrink with time. But you can learn to carry it. Practice noticing it less as it becomes a more familiar part of you.
In the end, your grief will always be there, taking up space.
And I suppose that’s the beautiful thing about a soul:
There is infinite space.
You may even find that there is space for more grief. But–this is what I want you to remember–there is room for more joy. And it is your job to open your arms and welcome joy and joy and joy until your grief looks small in comparison.”
This just really spoke to my own grief, yet also gave me hope. It was important for me to say, my mom carried a sadness within her always, but she taught me to see the laughter in the sad moments, the good in the bad. She always made me feel there was hope. And love. Always so much love and joy, music and poetry and dancing.
Afterwards we all headed to the luncheon which was equally full of love and stories. I think just being with other people who loved my mom and missed her and grieved for her was a balm to my heart. I am truly truly blessed with good kind people in my life.
And then I haven’t done much since! In school, I am teaching Wyatt about Sojourner Truth and continuing on with the underground railroad, abolitionism, and then next week the Civil War. We have been painting and reading, we have been practicing his walking, doing his exercises, cuddling cats. Today I hope to get some baking in, I want to make scones but if I don’t, there is always tomorrow.
Some little things that made me smile this week: spotting kittens on a walk, Wyatt’s giant grin at walking to the house the next block over that is super decorated for Halloween, painting this cute bookmark and the way that it peeks over the top of my book, the cool weather, brownies, our Little Free Library getting chosen for two copies of their book club book this month.




And that is it for me today my friends! Thank you to all of you too, who have been commenting supporting and caring words, and messaging me with the same.
I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile, even if it is something small.
































































