What We Did This Week

When it is the end of January and you cannot remember the last time you saw the sun, you will hang up a strand of white Christmas lights on your kitchen drapes to cheer up the space you spend most of your day. You will only venture outside to collect the mail from the box inches from your front door. You will pile your recycling in bags outside your side door hoping your husband will be kind enough to put them in their appropriate bins, unconcerned about what the neighbors might think. You will stop wearing make-up, not even bothering with a touch of eye liner or mascara, because you never leave the house. You will not despair at the bleakness of the days but maintain hope in the resurrection which is to come. You will liken your confinement within the walls of your home to that of a monk in his cell and find comfort that everything you need to know can be learned within this space. You will marvel at feathery snowflakes falling outside your window, whose beauty has not been lost despite their familiarity. You will giggle at your sons' insistence to play priest and make the holy bread out of blue and red homemade play-dough. You will tie their blankets around their necks and touch their "vestments" and kiss their pretend crosses when requested. You will take delight in your eldest son's creation of a button necklace for his treasured bear, Baby Owen, and will praise his ingenuity for days. You will begin to teach your 16-month-year old daughter some of the faces her brothers learned when they were tinies. She will master "Surprise" and "Pensive" and you will comment on her keen mind. You will make puppets out of paper bags because you promised to do it the day before and didn't; you will muster up the energy so as not disappoint again despite the fact that you are dead tired and the coffee bag is empty. You will be surprised that despite the buttons, scraps of felt and fabric, sprawled out on the table and floor, that you actually enjoyed this particular craft. You will lay aside all the not so good things done and said throughout the week, which required a large amount of forgiveness from your children and spouse, and be grateful for mercy and the grace and courage to pick yourself off the floor and try again.