Hey friends.

“Overwhelmed” was our theme of the week, how about you?

It started with a Monday holiday, so the kids were home from school. Then on Wednesday our daycare was closed for a power outage, and the work kept piling up for us.

If you’ve got little kids, you get it. You're trying to be productive and manage your own stress, while simultaneously diffusing arguments, providing endless snacks, or the absolute hardest for me to ignore: “Dad, will you play with me?”

It’s everything I love about parenting, but it’s also a lot. And this week, it added up.

When the overwhelm hits a peak for me, I try to remember the bright spots in the week that I’m forgetting in the moment. Sometimes I even have to open up my photo gallery to remind myself what they were. But they’re always there.

And this week it was this: we took the kids skiing for the first time.

Watching them get over the fear, falling, getting back up, and seeing the smiles. All the memories of my parents teaching me to ski came flooding back.

And last night, after everyone was asleep, I stood in the kitchen for a minute, and let the week settle.

The overwhelmed feeling and stress was still there, piling up as the week went on.

But so was that image of them coming down the hill, grinning. Hearing them yell “I want to go again!!” Along with the memory of them excitedly calling my parents to tell them they went skiing, and feeling it all come full circle for me.

A little light in a hard week was all I needed to feel it all wash away.

So that’s what I’m bringing to you this week.

If you’ve been carrying a lot, mentally, emotionally, or financially, you’re certainly not alone. And if tonight all you do is stand in your kitchen for 30 quiet seconds and breathe, that’s enough.

Look back through your photos or your memories, and find your rose from the week.

It’s always brighter than the thorns.

– Seth