This past weekend, I decided to step away from job hunting and spend some quality time with the kids. I thought it would be a quiet, relaxing couple of days, but life had other plans. Instead, we faced one of those moments where you\u2019re forced to focus on finding strength through loss<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of our cats, Cloud, took a turn for the worse. He was an old Maine Coon mix with heart issues, so it wasn\u2019t unexpected. Still, losing him hit hard. Cloud wasn\u2019t just a pet, he was a big love muffin, always ready to snuggle. Sunday night he passed, and the entire family was heartbroken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We chose to bury him in the backyard. What we didn\u2019t expect was how hard the ground would be. A simple task turned into hours of digging with a grubbing hoe and post hole shovel I had to run out and buy. It wasn\u2019t money I wanted to spend, but it was the right thing to do. In the end, Cloud got a proper resting place, and as a family we did it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday I still managed to meet my bare-minimum job application goals. I set those for myself to keep moving forward. But honestly, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to write my daily post. Grief has a way of slowing you down.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPicking Myself Back Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n