I’m Blessed

My sister is still in town, at least until about supper time tonight.  It has been such a wonderful weekend.  Seriously, I feel like my soul got fed.  I love my husband, and I love my children, but none of them give me “girl time” and the best kind of “girl time” is time with my sister.  Being with someone who has known you your whole life, and knows what you mean when you can’t say it right.

There was a lot of staying up late, sleeping in, and waking up to coffee that Knut left out for us as he was taking care of the kids.  He’s golden.  Big brownie points for him this weekend.

(Our morning coffee, being kept warm with plates on top, until we finally roll out of bed.)

It’s been years since I’ve had this kind of time with my sister, and I’ve been selfishly taking it.  I feel bad that the kids really wanted to spend more time with her, but I felt she came here to see me, and to spend time with the kids on the side.  I didn’t realize how much I needed her until she got here, and it’s been so good.

She is an amazing organizer, so when she asked how she could help, I pointed to my closet with mountains of clothes on the floor, and said I needed help going through my clothes.  So now a trash bag full of clothes is removed from the closet, and what remains is organized “in rainbow order.”  It made getting dressed yesterday very happy.

It was so helpful to have someone go through the clothes with me and say, “Um…Honey…you really need to get rid of this shirt…badly.”  I don’t feel like I have the best handle on fashion all the time, and having someone help me figure out which colors look good on me, and which shirts are terribly out of style (and have been for awhile) was the best gift ever.

As I type this, she’s putting together a handful of fun outfits for me, and taking pictures of them so I have a reference of some fun ideas that I may not have thought of before.  She’s obsessed with fashion as I am with knitting, and I feel really giddy about her doing this for me!  She’s the person I call when I’m trying to do a photo shoot for a pattern of mine, and she’ll tell me what the model should be wearing, and some styling ideas, etc.  She’s gold.

It will be tough to drop her off at the airport tonight already, but I feel so refreshed from our girls’ weekend, and so lucky to have her as my sister.  Growing up we fought like crazy, so it gives me hope for my kids that someday they will be best friends too.

In other happy news, my amaryllis that I started forcing indoors nearly 2 months ago is nearly ready to bloom.  We are watching it daily in anticipation now.

Also, Ingrid had a visit from the midwife last Thursday for her last Vitamin K supplement treatment, and when we weighed her we found out she has gained nearly 2 pounds since birth…1 month ago.  This girl is chunking up in a hurry.  She’s getting some good cheeks on her.  That is indeed a blessing!