life in these parts

photo courtesy of my purple girl

We love spring up here in the northwest! After our long, bleak winters, the sunshine feels so nice! My youngest daughter, lover of all things purple, noticed this crocus out in our front yard. I love each budding sign of spring around here!

"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold...
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only for an hour."

from "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
--Robert Frost

That's what's going on outside...inside our home is just as sweet. I've really been enjoying my kids lately. Sometimes I forget that stopping everything to read a library book can reset the whole tone in our home. This past month I remembered. And what a difference it makes. The kids forget they're disgruntled or bored when we're lost in the pages of a good book. Puzzles and games have the same effect. It took me a few years of parenting to realize this. I think I'm so busy and have so much to do, but sometimes all they need from me is 5 minutes. Then I go back to making dinner and they run off to play and everything's good. Why do I think these interruptions will set me back 5 years? I think I read this in one of Sally Clarkson's books--my children are not interruptions in my day. They are my work (and I don't use the term "work" here as negative or burdensome). Maybe the laundry and the dishes are my interruptions. :)

Now that we're out of the baby stage and my oldest is 8, I often do a double take and think, how did we get here already? Where did the time go? Are they really all school-aged?

"...her early leaf's a flower; but only for an hour."

So, as I said earlier, I've really been enjoying my kids lately. They're growing, but I'm growing, too. I'm learning that good parenting is partly good perspective. It's difficult if you think it's difficult, delightful if you think it's delightful. I realize there's more to it than that. Trust me, I know. But I also feel the deep ache that tells me this season is short and I'd rather have more delightful moments than difficult ones. So we're going to read more books, play more games and do more puzzles. And if it ever warms up, we'll play outside and enjoy the springtime.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year."

"A Prayer in Spring"
--Robert Frost

Happy Spring, Everyone!