Gee but it’s great to be back home

Home is where I want to be!

I was on the road all last week! Can you believe that? I can’t either. I was up in Boston filming The Gist! And then on the way home stopped off in Greenville to speak to a wonderful group of women for a morning of reflection. It was fun.

Last week was probably one of the most epic weeks of my life. That sounds over the top, but it’s true. I can’t even do a play-by-play, but what it involved, in my “Rachel’s List of Things on the Horizon” was plenty. The way I manage big things in my life is like a mental timeline. I’ll look out at the week (or day) ahead, and pinpoint the exact things that are causing me stress, anxiety, excitement or (as it often tends to be) some combination of the above. Last week was a constant with those.

Here’s what the week looked like, in my mind: pack kids. make schedule. spend time with kids. GET UP EARLY TO CATCH PLANE. land in Charlotte. land in Boston. TURN ON PHONE TO SEE HOW MOM’S SURGERY IS GOING. catch ride with Danielle. get to television station to start taping. HAIR. MAKE IT LESS BIG. start taping. stop taping. hotel. sleep. up. eat. MEET KIND WOMAN WHO WILL DO YOUR HAIR. film more of The Gist. change. film more of The Gist. dinner. sleep. ARRIVE AT STUDIO TO DO ON-AIR INTERVIEWS. finish up taping season one of The Gist. take taxi to airport hotel. GET UP EARLY TO CATCH PLANE OH MY GOSH IT SNOWED DURING THE NIGHT. get on plane. get de-iced. fly to Greenville. meet super cute gals at church. have dinner with them. GET UP EARLY TO SPEAK AT RETREAT. get on plane. GET HOME AND SEE YOUR MOM AFTER HER MAJOR BREAST-CANCER REMOVING SURGERY.

and we’re done.

(p.s. I don’t really think you read all of that paragraph but it’s so therapeutic for me to write it and lucky you you can skim over whatever seems boring and uneventful.)

Synopsis: last week was busy and good with so much going on. I am blessed beyond words to be a part of this television show, I love hanging with my wee little pals Danielle and Carolee and Kate because I won’t lie, they are fun and smart but also I love the way they all think I’m so TALL. Because, um, not always. I have a picture from my super tall 6’5″ brother’s wedding (the one where he married the 6’2″ girl) and compared to my sister and sisters-in-law and the other bridesmaids I look like someone plopped the mom from the Loving Family into the picture. So when I’m up there taping the show and they say things like “you’re so tall!” Well it’s just music to my vertically-challenged ears.

I got back Saturday night. My dad picked me up at the airport because there was basketball doncha know, and it was an exciting and important game. It was fun to see my dad waiting for me there, after being gone so long. We just started smiling and waving from about a mile away. My dad dropped me off at the gym and oh my goodness it was nice to see just how much my family missed me. Each boy gave me loooong hugs and told me (outloud!) how much they missed me, how glad they were to have me home. It felt good to hear those words. I know that’s the truth, but in this world of boys and young men, when they take the time to articulate those feelings, it does my heart good.

I had to scoot home during the game and I popped in on my mom. And she looked beautiful and is doing great and all the wound-up-tight feelings that would come and go during the week finally deflated. I made it through. My mom made it through. The traveling and the show and the talk and the being away from my family and my mom having a bilateral mastectomy — it all came and went. And yes, my mom still has some fighting to do and some challenges ahead. But seeing how well she is doing now just makes me so darn proud of her, and of my dad. They are rock stars.

And now I’m back. Here in my home. Tonight we were settling in after a basketball game and all of us were standing around in the kitchen getting post-game snacks and dinner, apple slices for Henry’s storytime with daddy. And I said to Paul, “does it feel different having me home.” And his smile and sigh spoke volumes. I noticed the boys lingering close to me, telling me stories, playing songs for me on the guitar. It was perfection.

I wish I always felt acutely aware of the goodness in my life, the way it feels on these days, when you are home from being away and it all feels fresh and new.

But either way, I’m enjoying it right now.

Unrelated, this picture of Isabel at tonight’s game:

for some reason reminds me of this:

name that movie