Suddenly, I’m not tired anymore. My last day at my job was a week and a half ago and I’ve been sick, and voiceless ever since my first day home. That was not the entrance into this new life of working from home that I was expecting. But it was a transition period. I needed some sleep.

Tonight, we watched, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, with Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman and Jason Bateman. It was magical all the way through. If you don’t like magic, don’t bother with it, but I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

After I put the kids to bed, I waltzed around the house feeling like a hostess after a terrific party. So what if there were a few things to pick up and some dishes to do? The thrill of the evening was still fresh on my mind and I could tidy up like the best of them. I threw another load of laundry in and quick cleaned up the kitchen. Literally, I stopped to pick up a bit of lint that fell out of the dryer and felt like Cinderella on tip toes making everything in my house perfect, so I can wake up to a clean house. Wow! I’ve lost my housekeeping mind.

Today I read a fantastic article by another farm-steading mom, and she made me laugh out loud in her portrayal of our not-so-perfect ways. We are not always at the top of our game, but we sure have fun. We pack so much into a day living on a farm, and being new to it. We don’t always get to feel completely accomplished, or like we actually know what we are doing. But, then, there are those moments when we remember that we are the ones who put the sparkle on things in our homes. We are the ones who have the children laughing over dinner. We are the tickle monsters that get amazing riffs of delighted giggles out of our kids. My husband was blow-drying the kids with the lawn blower today and making their hats blow off and their hair do crazy things. We were all in hysterics.

We are eating fresh from our farm. We still have canned deliciousness from the garden we grew last year. We are drinking goats milk and loving it. We are up at the crack of dawn, and that never really gets easier. We work long days, and into the night sometimes. I am getting really good at filling out forms for the government – huge binders full of forms for the IRS. I felt a kinship with the Mutant in the movie… Mr. Magorium hires an Accountant, which he thinks is a blend of Accounting and Mutant – and they call poor Henry “Mutant” throughout the movie.

The final brilliance was the credits at the end of the movie – where they named every character, even the guy holding a hot dog got an actual name. And throughout the credits, they broke down the people working on the movie and gave them names. “The People who made sure we Paid People,” The People who carried cameras around to film people,” “The People who made things that were there,” “The People who made things that weren’t there.” Everyone was credited for the part they played in making this remarkable film.

What part are you playing in your life? Are you giving yourself enough credit? Remember that your life is an occasion. Rise to it. Fling your arms wide and embrace it. That little sock monkey wants a hug, darn it. Hug the sock monkey!

Photo from here

The title of this article is a quote said by Dustin Hoffman’s character, Mr. Magorium, to Natalie Portman’s character, as he holds her precious face in his hands.

I’m not crazy – there’s a sock monkey theme in the movie. You will get it if you’ve watched it. And if you haven’t, when you do, the sock monkey will make your eyes water.