Sunday Afternoon

We're settling back into school routines, with early alarm clocks reminding us summer has ended. In case we weren't certain, the leaves are falling rapidly, hitting the ground with a golden hue. Back-to-school colds are already making their presence, our annual gift we'd be happy to let go. It's my last year before all three are in school full-time; it's bittersweet, making me pause and wonder how that much time has slipped through my grasp, while making me relearn time management. Life's funny like that. We sit there holding our newborns, swearing to ourselves we'll soak up all these moments because it'll pass so quickly. But yearning for a little more- like getting out the door in a timely manner, and in one-piece. Then finding ourselves with older children, yearning for more control, like we had when they were babies, when we could bundle them up and load them up in the car. Life's funny like that. An ever-evolving circle that we're at the helm of, navigating through all the ups and downs.

Home

On the cusp of changing seasons, lives change alongside. Children quietly get older, day by day, until we, usually shocked, find them to be new people. Personalities grow, just as the inches. But the most pronounced change is often when we welcome a new baby into the family. When the conversations of five-year olds are now accompanied by the sounds of a newborn. When the school schedules are accompanied by infant schedules. When the dynamics of two children becomes the dynamics of three children. The love grows and the walls inside our homes swell with the new memories created. Just as the seasons welcome each other, the family does the same. Quickly and quietly.

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Saturday Morning

It's a roller coaster, I say, about almost everything- allergies, schedules, sickness, the kids, motherhood. Up & down, round & round. Unexpected jolts, expected jolts & lots of in between. The laughter, the fear, it's all there, greeting us each new day. Whether or not you have children, whether it's your first or your third child, our emotions are all intertwined. Wrapping us tight in their grasp, holding close, reminding us to make the most of this ride, the ride of our lives.

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One Month

The last two days have been spent mostly homebound, as two of my three battle the nasty cold floating around our island. It's been a fountain of unlimited mucous in these joints, and we're over it. Except for the extra snuggling. That's almost worth the illness. But I'm still considering it the last big sickness of the season. I'll probably be wrong, but I can smell spring and that means summer is not too far away. Like literally right around the corner (I'm looking at you May). Spring isn't really a season here, but this year seems to be making an exception. There are actually things blossoming right now, and my rhubarb looks like it could be harvested in another month. So I'm fantasizing about summer vacation kicking off with good health and good weather. Double whammy. Like those early days of motherhood, when you wonder what happened to the last month of your life, or the last 12-hours of your day. When everything seems to move in a sudden instant, yet drag slowly. It's the perfect twist of emotions, presenting to you the roller coaster that will encompass you now that you are mom. 

Motherhood at one month.

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December Morning

"On the day you were born
the moon pulled on the ocean below,
and, wave by wave,
a rising tide washed the beaches clean
for your footprints...
...while far out at sea
clouds swelled with water drops, 
sailed to shore on a wind,
and rained you a welcome
across the Earth's green lands....

...On the day you were born
the Earth turned, the Moon pulled,
the Sun flared, and, then, with a push,
you slipped out of the dark quiet
where suddenly you could hear...
...a circle of people singing
with voices familiar and clear...
As they held you close
they whispered into your open, curving ear,
'We are so glad you've come.'" - from "On the Day You Were Born" by Debra Frasier

One Week

The other day the boys had some friends over, and while I was making some lunch, they were playing on our old rotary phone. That thing sucks all kids in, it's like an ancient piece of history, a bit of an unknown. Picking up and hearing a dial tone, turning the numbers around and around, with the prospect of someone talking to you on the other end. Well then they started joking about calling 911, so I was shuffling plates, jabbering on about how we don't make those kinds of jokes because it's actually a serious thing. Then a few minutes later, one sad face asked me over, to talk to the person on the phone. The 911 dispatcher. She explained it sounded like an altercation, I explained it was five boys playing on the old phone. She explained a trooper may want to come out, but it was up to his discretion. Thirty minutes later, halfway through my shower, the trooper did come. That, combined with many other mishaps on our Monday, was our entertaining entrance to spring break. Now it's Friday, and we're all looking around, wondering how our week slipped so quickly from our grasp. Kind of like childhood, as I look through these newborn photos, wondering how my babies slipped from my grasp, into big kids. Life's funny that way. Pulling us along on a bittersweet roller coaster.

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