Five Stages of Grief...

Grief does not just happen when a loved one dies.  I found out that grief is a part of many of life's different events, even the good ones.  For instance, you can find yourself grieving when your first child goes to kindergarten or off to college, when children get married or move away, when your family has to move because of a job change or a job loss. You can grieve when a relationship changes or when life just doesn't go the way you had dreamed.  Grief can strike when the holidays come around and your kids don't come home. Chronic illness and depression can also cause grief because of the loss of life expectations and dreams. 

Healthy grieving starts with recognizing the different stages of grief, letting yourself experience each stage and learning how to work through them.  Today, I will just list the different stages along with a simple description of each one.  Next week, we will take one a day and explore them a little more.

The Five Stages of Grief

1.  Denial - No crying. Not accepting or even acknowledging the change in your life.

2.  Anger - Wanting to fight back and blame.

3.  Bargaining - attempting to make deals with God.

4. Depression - Overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, self-pity, fear, mourning loss of hopes, dreams and plans for the future.  Feeling lack of control, feeling numb.  Perhaps feeling suicidal.

5.  Acceptance - Finding the good that can come out of the situation.  Goals turn toward personal growth.

I also learned that generally you don't go through each stage once and then you are done grieving.  You can go back and forth between anger, bargaining and depression several times before you come to acceptance.  Some people get stuck in denial and think they are actually dealing with the situation quite well.  It's important to know that you must go through each stage of grief and come to acceptance before you can be healthy mentally, spiritually and emotionally.  Of course, not working through each stage in a healthy way can also affect you physically.

Tomorrow we will touch on depression and chronic illness and their affect on relationships.

Decorating

Decorating for baby showers is fun but can be quite costly.  So coming up with some inexpensive but cute decorations has been my challenge.  Several years ago, I saved up and purchased some pretty white Martha Stewart luncheon plates at Kmart to use specifically for showers and teas and also purchased small wine goblets at Target with which to serve punch.  They have helped save hundreds of dollars that would have been spent to buy cups and plates for each shower. 

Decorating the table starts with stacking large books or using different size boxes under a white tablecloth.  Then come white lights under blue tulle topped with some wrapped boxes, labeled with sections of the poem, "What Little Boys Are Made Of".  I've done the same with the "Little Girls" poem, as well, with pink wrapping papers. A couple of cute teddy bears completes the scene and there is plenty of room for the plates, goblets, napkins, silverware, punch and food.


I used these for several baby showers (different people) but soon had to come up with another idea.  This one just might work for each baby shower because it will be easy to personalize it for each baby.  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought paper mache letters for the baby's initials then decoupaged scrapbook papers onto the front of each letter that coordinated with his nursery.

 

Hmmm...not sure why it cut the bottom of the picture off.  I would download some more pictures so you could get a better idea, but it is taking 15-20 minutes to download today.  Alrighty, then!  I will be making another set for a little baby girl's shower this weekend.  Maybe I will be able to download the pictures...

Today's Recipe - Italian Vegetable Soup

Taste of Home

1 lb ground beef 

1 cup diced onion

1 cup sliced celery

1 cup sliced carrots

2 cloves garlic, minced

16 oz can tomatoes

15 oz can tomato sauce

15 oz can red kidney beans, undrained

1 cup water

14.5 oz can beef broth

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp sweet basil

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 cups shredded cabbage

1/2 cup small elbow macaroni

Parmesan cheese

Brown beef in large heavy kettle; drain.  Add all the ingredients except cabbage and macaroni. Bring to a boil.  Lower heat; cover and simmer 20 minutes.  Add cabbage and macaroni; bring to a boil and simmer until vegetables are tender.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving.  12 servings