It has been a real whirlwind of all the things over here lately. Two weeks ago (that long already??) my dear sister in law welcomed her fourth child via VBAC, and our little village has been pretty busy rallying with food, child care of her older three, and whatever other sundries she needs while recovering. I had the great honor of serving as my SIL's doula at her delivery, which is a whole other post about how that was the highlight of my entire life, but what you need to know is it happened overnight. Dear Lydia made her entrance at 3:44 a.m. I learned two things that night: 1) Childbirth is every bit a miracle when witnessed rather than experienced/survived. Oh my heart. and 2) I am no spring chicken anymore. It took me a solid week to recover from missing that night of sleep and now I have a cough and cold. I am officially an old lady because I had thoughts like, "What fool person would stay up all night on purpose?" My inner adolescent might have shed a tear.
Then, my hubby suggested that we move our guest room downstairs and shift the library/office up to the baby's room. What you need to know is that my love language is rearranging furniture. Of course, this project stretched over the course of a week as we trucked books upstairs and bedroom furniture back down. But it's finished, so hey, come and stay with us sometime!
Also, this Saturday we plan to paint our main downstairs living area. We are hurrying to get the furniture switch squared away as much as necessary to be able to prep the space for this big job. Phase 2 will be painting the trim, with replacing doors and maybe door frames as Phase 3. It seemed like a simple enough idea at the outset, and one that will update our home by a couple of decades without breaking the bank, but...with three young kids, every sprint becomes a marathon, yes? That weekend project takes over your home for a month because you didn't get to finish painting, so you left the painter's tape up and the switch plates off, so you left the furniture pushed around a bit so you wouldn't have to move it again, etc. etc. And all because the baby didn't take his nap that he always takes like clockwork, chopping a solid hour off of your painting day. Not that I expect this to happen on Saturday because that is the one project that is sure to go without a hitch. Hahahaha.
And then there's the whole "hi, it's spring, and obviously 81 degrees all week!" thing that has twisted my arm into the whole rotating bins of clothing thing for the kids. I only just located some shorts for my poor daughter, who has been referring to her one pair of capris as shorts because, well, they were her only not-pants. And then the shoes. The shoes! My kids outgrew their boots, then their sneakers, which I just replaced only to find that hey, sandals would be good now. If anyone has found the answer to keeping their kids in adequately-fitting footwear for longer than a month at a time, please subscribe me to your newsletter.
Then of course the typical cooking, cleaning, yard work, keep the kids alive and generally out of danger, blah blah blah which only takes thirteen of my sixteen waking hours. I'm working on planning (just) ahead on preschool lessons, which has paid dividends in getting my kids some structure and passing these spring hours a bit more productively. We started piano lessons which is not at all like nailing jello to a wall. The important thing is the love of music, not the technical perfection, I keep telling myself between deep breaths and shots of coffee.
What have you been up to? Has the long-awaited arrival of spring turned you into a hypomanic overachiever, too? Are you doing all of the things, or have you managed to slow down and smell a few freshly-blooming lilacs? To all things a season. This might be one of my favorites!
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