Month of Sundays

Sundays in the Handley House are a family day.  We rarely do anything major outside the house and sort of take the day to focus on things we need or want to do for our family and to prepare for the week ahead.  It's a low-stress day, which I love and need.  Even before Ray and I were married, Sundays were always the one day of the week that we spent together just doing our thing.  Now that we are married and have children, Sunday is even more sacred.  And we started a tradition of grilling steaks each Sunday night and really enjoying a nice meal.  (Of course, this tradition was put on hold during both pregnancies since I refuse to eat a well-done steak.)

Because Sundays are our day, Sundays naturally are harder than other days of the week for me when he is gone.  I am more keenly aware of the fact that he's not here.  The first Sunday he was gone, I did the math to determine how many Sundays we'd be apart, and I realized it would be right around 31: a literal month of Sundays.  I wanted to find something positive to do with that information instead of focusing on how many lonely Sundays that would be.  You can miss a lot in a month of Sundays, and I realized that most of what Ray will miss will be the girls growing and changing.  I decided I'd try to keep track of the girls growing and changing by taking a picture of them on every Sunday until he gets home.  I'm going to compile them (somehow... I haven't decided exactly how yet) and then give them to him at the end of his trip.

Three weeks in, I'm glad I'm doing this - not just for him, but for me, too.  It's amazing to see the changes, especially in Anna, from week to week.  Today, our third Sunday, Juliet was taking a much-needed nap in our bed, and Anna was drowsy after her lunch, so I couldn't help staging this picture.  I love these two girls more than I could ever explain.