Karoline arranged this tea party on the living room floor unprompted the other day. She's taken to going into the china cabinet and setting a party spread whenever she pleases. I'm not particularly encouraging this as I really do like my china, but I've never been one to lock cabinets and such. So, I've made sure she knows that her tea set is in there. She set this up with great care and then demanded that Sarah come for tea. We found the blue baby seat (oh, Mommy, I saw a pink one and a purple one at Target yesterday; we really should get those for Sarah Annie...) and Sarah was initiated into the sisterhood of magical play.
It's been an old-fashioned week here this week. I blogged Monday morning and set several posts to auto-post. Then, I mostly backed away from the computer, save a couple of quick two-line posts. I've read two novels while nursing and "marked as read" several hundred posts from Google Reader without reading them. This was not a plan, but rather a serendipitous constellation of events--both happy and distressing. The distressing events all centered on my dear, sweet husband who has badly injured his back and has needed me to help him do the most basic of tasks.
It's been a strange bedrest role reversal.I am rarely at the computer when he is home and he's been home all the time. I wrote a column and sent it to the Herald and it felt like old times, when that was all I published regularly. Then, I gathered my precious children and headed outside. I now understand those pangs of guilt Mike felt when he left me alone in our room on beautiful days last fall to take our children on grand adventures.
I have spent the week adventuring on the banks of Bull Run and Cub Run, in old familiar places and sunny new spaces.I've heralded a new baseball season and a new soccer season. I am sunburned and tired to the bone--in a very good way.
I sat in dappled sunlight with three good friends today. We watched our children play together and remembered seasons past when the big kids were little enough to skinny dip and the little kids were just-hoped-for whispers of fervent prayers.I smiled and smiled and smiled. In all honesty, the days defy words. I'm so glad, though, that for part of the time, Lori Fowlkes joined us with her camera (do click--it's a sweet shot). Oh, what pictures we will share in the next few weeks! For now, Mary Beth has some pictures from our family camera, set to music she thinks captures the day just right.
I'm Elizabeth. I'm a happy wife and the mother of nine children. I grab grace with both hands and write to encourage myself and others to seize and nurture the joy of every day. I blog here with my daughter, Mary Beth, a wholehearted young lady on the brink of adulthood.
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