Hello, dear readers. When I last posted, we were in the throes of a seemingly insurmountable problem – little lemon grenades were coming at us from every direction. I am pleased to report that all the good energy worked. We immediately felt the shift and were able to resolve the situation amicably. Thank you all for keeping us in your hearts. We greatly appreciate it.

And now, for something completely different.

For my day job, I read a lot of blogs, looking for content or news I can report on my company’s blog. This past week, I read an interesting post about the difference between discipline and motivation. The author made the point that motivation is often situational, and that to continue doing challenging work one must cultivate self-discipline. The author quoted Newton’s first law of physics: an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. The analogy is that a disciplined person is like an object in motion, while a person who relies on motivation is essentially an object at rest, waiting for an external factor to prompt his or her movement.

Because I am inherently insecure, I immediately thought of this blog. Lately, I have not been disciplined about posting here. Usually, I try to post about once a week. I like to post when I’m motivated because those posts tend to be better written and flow more easily. However, motivation waxes and wanes. Thus, posts on this blog can be inconsistent. When we are in the throes of intense personal struggle, it’s hard to discipline myself to do anything extra, including posting here. (The exception is when the intense personal struggle is related to Gracie’s medical condition.)

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

I am torn between wanting to commit to writing more on this blog and accepting the reality of my schedule. I wish I could be disciplined enough to commit to a post a week, maybe more. But between working full time at my day job, taking care of the household and children, and now working a second job of sorts as well, there is not much of me left. It’s unrealistic for me to add anything to my life right now (except maybe a fluffy puppy if one happens to cross my path… kidding, mostly).

So, if you will all bear with me, I will commit to posting when the muse strikes, or when Gracie is having yet another medical crisis, and occasionally in between too. It may be a while; the muse is fickle. And I certainly hope it’s a while before Gracie has yet another medical crisis, although that may be sooner than we would like. Gracie’s occupational therapist was here today, working with Grace to get strength back in her right hand, and I noticed Grace’s hand is unusually swollen. Grace also mentioned a few times that her hand “tickles” – this is a word that other children who don’t feel pain use as well; it tends to signify injury. However, Gracie’s ortho does not want to subject her to any non-infection-related x-rays, and she is already in a hard cast-like splint, so there seems little utility in trekking her to the doctor at this point. We shall wait and see.

Thank you all for your support, for the good energy, and for being there for us—both virtually and in real life. We know we have a lot of good friends and family who love us dearly, and that means the world to us. In fact, love is the only thing that matters. Thank you all for spreading the love our way. Right back atcha. ❤