it's never easy...

 We had calling hours, and a celebration of life for my sister.  It's not easy, I cannot even fathom the days ahead. Yet knowing she is done with her suffering and is in that great cloud of witnesses is a comfort.

Her seven daughters read parts of her eulogy, here is some of it:

You may not be able to decipher it, oops.  

We heard from so many who were genuinely touched by Cheryl's friendship and the living example she was of faithfulness.  

This is how I will remember us!  :)

It was a frigidly cold weekend, hovering around or below zero.  We had a gathering here after the calling hours on Friday night, Emily brought a Wegman's cake and lots of good snacks, and we talked about Cheryl.  We were exceptionally close, even more so in the earlier years of parenting, we went on all our adventures together.  My older kids especially thought of her as a second mother.  It did my heart good to hear their tales, and we had some really good therapeutic laughs too, which Cheryl would wholeheartedly approve of.

Saturday was an exhausting day, yet a wonderful day.  Cheryl's girls and their husbands were all there, even Claire from Australia.  There were around 200 of us at the celebration of life feast, and we had a nice meal catered from one of her favorite restaurants, along with salads made by Nate and Emily, and some others.  Dessert HAD to be donuts, which Sonja went and picked up in the horrible snowy weather (the wind was blowing something fierce, and the roads were just snow covered, the plows didn't help much, and salt didn't work in the freezing temps).  There was also cheesecake, which was one of her faves.  

Sunday was a freezing cold quiet day, started out at negative two, and only went up to seven.  We stayed home and Camille made this: 

We made pulled pork nachos too, and had some girls over to watch the game.  They had chicken wing dip and cannoli dip (thank you Ashley!!!), and some other dips and snacks and lots of good drinks.  Yes, we watched Bad Bunny, and meh, it wasn't anything to write home about, but it wasn't really bad, in my non-partisan opinion.  I hate the great divide, to tell the truth.  Taking sides and bashing, I'm done with it.  The world is a train wreck in so many aspects, speeding toward's it's demise, but God's promises are rock solid, and we have such a hope if we lift our vision.  People in politics are just people, and people, by nature, are corruptible, honor seeking, stepping on each other to rise up.  They're greedy for all the things that are temporary.  

Then there's Orange Guy.  He doesn't worry about a thing, he just enjoys life.

Brrr!

Sonja and baby Kaia spent the weekend with us!  Waking up and having baby time was golden.

She's so funny!  She loved the buttons on my sweater.  :)

Ah well.  This fine morning, I got on the exercise bike for a few minutes, just to loosen up, then I put my sneakers on and went down to Camille's room for five minutes on the stair stepper.  I did it yesterday too.  It's a measly five minutes, but I'd rather be doing it steadily every day for a small amount of time and build up, then do too long...oh, I have good excuses ha.  

This fine day it's freezing out, but it's 12! (-11.11c), and sunny, so it is a good day!  So....guess what I'm doing today?  I'm going to Target!  I have not been there in over three months!  Charlotte Claire will drive, Cam and I will passenger, and hopefully I'll make it partway across the store!  I need to get out, I need to build endurance!  My walking is still very dismal!  

You all have a very good Monday, and thank you all for your comments on here, it's so special to me. :)