intrigue in the wee hours...

Our sweet babies are curled at my feet, not really sleeping, not really awake.  They sleep really great from about 7 pm to 2 am, after they go back to sleep they don't really stay asleep.  Usually we are up by 4 am, they need another potty break and some food.  They are just babies.  Momma is a bit tired, so is Daddy.  I'm sitting here with them, he's down in the man-cave trying to rest a bit longer.  His music is making my eyes heavy, but I can only handle being woken up twice in one night. 

I know this is simply a season, soon they will be able to sleep through the night.  Soon they will outgrow some of things that make me a bit crazy right now.  My floors are cleaner than they have ever been, I mop them multiple times a day - you can guess why. And puppy toys are just as painful as legos when they are hidden in with the carpeting. 

I am leaning into this moment in time.  Because their sweet loving faces and personalities fill my heart with pure love and joy.  I have definitely missed the unquestionable love of a dog. They are so sweet and trusting.  Even ones that have been given reasons to not trust. 

When they woke us up the first time I got wrapped up in reading an article about "Old Christmas" and the Appalachian beliefs and stories.  It was absolutely fascinating and even though my eyes were heavy and shutting I read most of it before drifting back to sleep.  I finished when they woke me the second time.  I am that person that notices when things keep popping up for me, and right now I am wondering why the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar is so prevalent this week.  How have I gone my whole life and never really known about it?  

It seems like almost daily stories are showing up in different ways that draw my attention back to it, to the lost days, to the moving of holidays and simple changes that I was never really aware of. It's truly fascinating.  And now that it is at the forefront of my thoughts, I want to learn even more about it.  There are many different reasons, some semi-make sense, others feel like blatant lies.  To find out there are countries that are on other calendars was a bit of mind blowing information.  I mean, how do you get to the age I am and not realize that. 

I think I first glimpsed a bit of it last year when our son's girlfriend lost her Dad.  She was hurting so much, compounded because evidently he passed on his birthday.  She hadn't known it was his birthday because in her birth country the dates fall differently than here. I was perplexed, but didn't want to ask too many questions while she was hurting so much.  As life moved on, it drifted to the back of my mind and I forgot about it. 

I have always been a huge history nut.  I love visiting the old sites, learning as much as I can about all of it. So I am equally puzzled as to why I am just now learning some of this.  And some of it is making me more curious than ever about things that no longer make sense. 

I had never realized that there are religious faiths that still celebrate Christmas in January - at the time of Old Christmas.  I also have often wondered about things like the 12 days of Christmas and the conflicting thoughts around when it truly is.  When I lived in Greece this non-Catholic learned about Epiphany and thought I understood how all of that ties in.  Now I am even more convinced I understand very little. 

I guess we don't learn things until we are ready to learn them.  I am not sure how deeply I want to dive in and explore this, but I am very intrigued and the more tidbits that come my way the more interested I am. Some how, things seem a bit more twisted than we have been led to believe.  I doubt we will ever know the true story about many things, that they will always be a bit more vague and misty than we will ever know.  Time does that.  I am a naturally curious person, I like to learn and understand. I am learning to accept that there are many things that defy understanding.  Things that linger, forever lost in time. 

Just took the puppies outside for the third time this morning, to discover that it had started to softly snow. Not enough to really matter, but definitely enough to count as the babies first snow. They didn't really know what to think about it, do you eat it, do you avoid it, or just sit in it?  They moved on to simply romping for a few moments, doing their business and then Belle headed to the front step, she wasn't impressed.  Beau was not done trying to explore it when I brought him in.  The 7 degrees had more to do with the brevity than the snow.

Well, Hubs is awake, puppies are back asleep and I need to start thinking about fixing breakfast before he starts his day. 

love and peace...