these days

These days, I've packed away my knitting, save for one sweater I've started for Violet. I have the optimistic spirit to believe that stitch by stitch, I'll finish it in time for it to still fit her. 

These days, I am looking around at the chaos of a home that a mere three weeks ago was in careful, near-obsessive order in preparation for a birth. I'm calculating how to eke out minutes here and there to tidy the top of the piano, put away the Christmas decorations, and clean the bathtub.

These days, the everyday things keep happening: Violet is debating whether or not to cut her hair, Margot had a fever and a sore tummy, and Jude lost a tooth. In the busyness of our lives these days, I was pleased to know that the Tooth Fairy still had time to leave a tiny note under his pillow with the money she traded for his tiny baby tooth.

These days, I'm astounded at how Norah is growing out of her newborn sleepers, how her arms are beginning to show the lines where her baby-rolls will soon appear, how she can lift her head off the table when she's lying on her tummy, how I can summon patience and joy every moment that she keeps me awake at night.

These days, the world has shrunk down to the joyous sphere of my family. I steal a moment here and there to cuddle each child, to do something they like even if I'd rather take a nap or a bath, to sit through a movie I've seen a hundred times if they ask me to. With a fourth child comes the wisdom of knowing, truly, that the dirt in the entranceway will wait, that the laundry can be done tomorrow, that no one else cares about the dishes in the sink.

These days, there's a whole lot of this going on:

And even more of this:

These days, I am so very blessed and grateful for the snow that keeps us home, for the wet snowsuits hung by the woodstove, for the remains of Christmas treats that fill in the gaps between easy meals, for the energy and patience of my husband during the evening's fussy periods, for the patience and sweetness of my three older children who feel that they never have enough time with me because of this nursling that takes up so much of my time.

2013 looks fine to me...the last 3 weeks of 2012 brought so very many blessings that there is nothing more I could ask for but for it all to continue so beautifully.

Abundant joy and a plethora of blessings to YOU in 2013!