What a day can bring

Today has brought laughter, resignation, and peace.
Samuel loves go to the basement to go through boxes that are still not unpacked from our move 10 months ago(if I haven't needed that stuff in 10 months.......). Every time, he finds some kind of "treasure" that has memory attached to it and sits next to me to remind me of "that one time when.....". After bringing up numerous games and toys, he came up with my hand weights and yoga mat and stated "Mommy, I brought your stuff up in case you want to "extercise" because I want you to be a "Mighty Mommy"! (He was recently introduced to Mighty Mouse, ah, the vintage toons are the best) It was so cute and so funny. A light moment in my day.
Then came resignation. I've come to accept that you can't find common ground with someone who won't step into your lawn for even a second. I am the type of person that believes "if they only understood where we are really coming from we could reach some balance". Maybe naive, but I thought that is what a family did...communicate. I guess not all families do, but I'm glad that in my home we do. My husband needs less of it than I do, but he listens to me, agrees and disagrees at times. My boys are at a stage where they don't want to talk about feelings. But Jer and I have made a conscious effort to make communication a foundation of our family. So I resign to the fact that I am going to have times in my life when people just don't want to or know how to communicate, healthily. But in our home I will be a "Mighty Mommy" to protect it and encourage it.
The peace came from a rather unusual place. My father-in-law has lung cancer, well at least that is where they found it first. About a week ago he learned it was also in other organs and his vertebrae. After the original diagnosis, he suffered a stroke and mild heart attack. Today we learned the heartbreaking news that he will have only weeks to months left in his life. However, Hospice has been called in and will be working to keep him pain free. How can I find peace there? The past months have been filled with unanswerable questions and tears, especially from my Tanner. He is Pappy's boy. He is 9 and our hearts were wrenching at what his response might be. We saw the great Comforter envelope his tender heart and he said "I want to take Pappy fishing and make sure I give him even more hugs and kisses". This will be his first experience with death. (My younger two do not understand the finality of earthly death but they understand that their Pappy knows Jesus and he will be in heaven.) We never wanted our children to fear sickness and death. Some times you don't know if what your trying to teach your children is taking hold, until it does. Today, there, we found peace.