With May being Mental Health Awareness month I’m posting a lot more than normal on Kaleb’s Story Facebook page. There is always certain times of the year that I will post more than others. If it was a perfect world, or if I ran a blog page or non-profit page full-time this might not be the case but as it stands I do still have other priorities. That’s not to say that makes this any less important. It just means there are times of the year that I spend every lunch hour, evening or weekend searching out the best quotes of the day, or researching statistics, working on fundraising and writing meaningful blogs.
When I began this blog page I decided I’d never write a blog just to fill a quota or to have something to post that day. That’s why sometimes it’s months between them and sometimes only days. Sometimes they are so personal I leave them as drafts and never post them. A lot of my posts are about suicide prevention, grief, healing after loss and mental health but that’s not all that we are. In the coming months we will be going on vacation and I plan on blogging each day as WiFi allows and sharing on my personal Facebook since it’s not related to Kaleb’s Story page.
That’s one thing that some people may not have a grasp of. Yes, we lost our son and our life changed forever, but our daily lives are just like anyone else’s. We get up, go to work to earn a living. We work around our house and we go on vacations. The difference, everything we do, we do with a piece of our heart missing. Anything might remind us of him. Looking at souvenirs on vacation we might find his name spelled correctly or we might find one of those machines that flattens pennies. He collected those everywhere we went. Those little reminders will put a smile on our face as we remember the good times. Or on a bad day they might bring a tear to our eye as we get frustrated or sad. We might see an awkward gangly teenager that looks just like him from the back and for a split second forget our life changed forever. But we are a normal family 90% of the time.
I hope if you chose to read our vacation blogs that you enjoy them. Those will be posted in August. If I’m unable to post them each day of the trip then I’ll post them all when we get back from vacation. If you don’t want to read them then you’ll probably want to skip the August blogs labeled Vacation. I’m excited to return to cruising after a 6 year hiatus from it.
Here’s to more posts and more blogs to bring awareness, tips, and statistics to each of you in the near future. I’ll try and do the research for you and bring you motivational quotes when you might need them most. Because you are important! You Matter! And Most Importantly YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!! #BeKalebsVoice
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Springtime & vacation
I LOVE SPRINGTIME!!
Spring and Summer are my favorite seasons. Seeing everything come to life. The brown ugly branches of trees, blossoming with fresh green foliage, flowers beginning to bloom and listening to the gurgle of streams flowing with spring rains. These things bring me such Joy!
What brings you happiness? What brings you joy? I have simple answers now. My husband, kids, family, friends and sunshine. What's better on a sunny spring day than driving with the sunroof back and the windows down? You get the wind in your hair, sun on your skin and you just feel your body soaking up the freshness in the air.
We traded my Jeep Wrangler over the winter. As soon as I mentioned I was considering trading it in, my husband jumped on it. I had already looked at some vehicles and I told him my list of requirements for a new vehicle.
1. had to be a Jeep brand
2. had to be 4 doors
3. had to have a sunroof
He tried to debate that a sunroof was not a necessity. That's a deal breaker for me. I'm a Jeep girl and going from a Wrangler to an SUV type vehicle, it wasn't an option to not have a sunroof. My trailblazer before my Jeep had a sunroof even. I can't handle a car with a closed in roof and drive it every day. I don't use my A/C often. I use windows and sunroof not because I like to be hot, but because I love the wind and the sunshine. In hindsight the black leather seats weren't the brightest choice, but I love my Jeep Cherokee Limited WITH a dual pane sunroof that is MOST of the roof space. Sorry to anyone riding in the backseat with the sun beating down on you, but my sunroof is awesome!
We have a cruise planned in August for our 16th wedding anniversary. The last few years we've planned our vacation around the anniversary of Kaleb's death. This year we are vacationing around a celebration and there is nothing I love more than travel and cruising. Just planning for the cruise makes me happy. Thinking about the sunshine and knowing the wind that will be present on the ship while it's sailing keeps my mood up. We've visited the ports we're going to previously but it was during the winter time and during an arctic blast. It was actually 2009 the year of the ice storm here at home when everyone was without power for so long. We missed it all. We were on a ship cruising. I won't say enjoying the weather, because that is still to date the only cruise we have been on where we froze most of the cruise and had to buy jackets and sweatshirts in ports. We were not packed appropriately. So we are redoing that cruise but in the summertime. I'm hoping to blog throughout our cruise and post about our days on the ship and in port. We haven't cruised in about 7 years. The difference in the internet access is amazing. We'll still be unplugging from society for the most part. No work, phones for pictures only. Internet for blogging. It will be nice to unplug and get a rest from the screens for a large majority of the daytime. Live life instead of reading about it, or seeing it through tv shows, or other peoples pictures or vlogs. It will give us time to recharge our inner batteries.
While we won't be vacationing around Kaleb's anniversary I'll always take off for his birthday in August and a couple of days for the anniversary of his death in September. Those will always be times that I need to take for myself away from others. That's the way I deal. I unplug from people. I don't think that's always a bad thing. It's a way of recharging me. Same as a vacation recharges you body and soul. Those days recharge me mentally to face another year. Same as trees go dormant through the winter to bloom again in the spring. It's ok to go quiet for a little while as long as you bloom again the next day or the next year. Each year that passes maybe my blooms will get a little brighter.
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