Girl to boy (girl we don't know)-

"Why do you have your toenails painted? Boys don't paint their nails."

Visualize me stopping in my tracks immediately to see how the boy will respond. And waiting to see if I will need to trip the girl for teasing him.

Boy looks her squarely in the eye, and in response, after a 5 second or so pause, tilts his head to the left and raises his shoulders slightly, quickly-

"Because I like it. And when my Mom gets some blue nail polish at the store (now waving his fingers at girl) I'm gonna paint my fingernails, too!"

He races off on his ride on toy, the one you don't need to push but only to turn the steering wheel quickly to get it to move.

"Hmm," she responds, and races off behind him.

I smile to myself, quietly, proudly. With relief. And think,

Ya, I grew him.

And, at the end of the day,
a very, very long day of
playgrounds and bee stings and falls and hurt arms and critical care visits and stitches and fear,
this is where they land.

And big provides comfort to little
solely by proximity
as little does so very often to big,
and secret understandings are shared as only those who stand close to the earth can share,
and all is okay.

Memorial Day weekend, 2010

You could offer me nothing, nothing, that would make me willing to give up this time for something else. These little people of mine leave me no with doubt that I am exactly where I am meant to be. No uncertainties, no regrets.

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"I definitely think everyone is the perfect parent until they have a kid, and everyone is a good parent until they have 2. Once you get to 3 and beyond you should get a medal for getting out of bed."

I read this today and thought it was so funny I had to save it. It was in reference to us feeling judged by other parents and how this concern impacts our parenting.

Mother's Day

I love these little people, and it is not a slight thing when they who are fresh from God love us.--Charles Dickens

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Laundry

This is what I worked on today. Not knitting, sewing, or baking a beautiful cake. Laundry. You can often find baskets of it in our bedroom. I work very hard to get it cleaned during the day but it often goes unfolded for longer than I would like. Because, truthfully, I would rather be spending time with my kids than folding laundry. And we make a lot of laundry. My husband and I both like a tidy house and continue to find it challenging to attain for longer than a few minutes. And we're okay with that, or at least we try to be. A family lives here, real people, and we live fully. We make messes, we get dirty. Real life is like that.

Art, creating, Noah style. Joyfully, freely, no one telling him what to do or how to do it. In his element. As we all should be.