A wonderful Monday to you

Good morning!
 
Yes, I'm blogging before dark today. Our recent schedule has us up far too late for even me to blog regularly in the evenings anymore. I thought I'd try a quick blog while the oats are cooking.
 
Since swim lessons are in full swing, we aren't doing any schooling this week aside from our normal reading, which, really, I've begun to think of as just "part of our day" rather than school. School, too, has become less an entity in itself over the last two years and more just a part of our day, as well, although it can, and does, get scootched about here and there (one of the perks of going year round- we can do that without guilt or worry!)
 
Last night an online friend of mine shared the news that her family will begin homeschooling this summer. I am overjoyed for them, and think it's going to be a fantastic adventure. Ironically, it was this family who acted as the catalyst for what became our foray into the home education realm two years ago. It's interesting how lives take twists and turns. The complexity and beauty of that pattern seldom fail to astound me.
 
Today, after we wade through the clean clothing and put it all away, the boys and I will go down to the County offices to ask a million questions and poke around like the curious small children we are. ;-)
 
Tonight, I think Zorak and I are going out for a dinner date for my birthday. I cannot believe another year has passed. I feel no monumental change in who I am or where I'm going, no need to reassess life's path. Age is not a pouncing lion that attacks you once a year, it is more a friend that walks your journey with you and makes the changes appear oh-so-gradual. As a matter of fact, it's easy to forget completely until I look at the boys and realize how much they've grown and changed each year. Then it's a little scary. Last night, I picked up James to move him into his room and it wasn't like picking up a little guy. I kept lifting and lifting and lifting... and there was more boy coiled up on the bed! Ack! He doesn't fit neatly on my lap anymore, and he doesn't have the same heft and center of gravity as a little guy. I am so thankful that I can be with the boys each day, even on the exhausting, repetitive, never-complete-a-sentence days, and yet, even being home with them I feel like I am missing something or not managing to store up enough memories. On my 30th birthday, I had a just-turned three year old, a four year old and was out-to-here pregnant. On my 31st birthday, I have a four year old, an almost-six year old (because that's always how you look at the more subjective aspects of time when you're feeling reflective), and a cruising, climbing almost-one year old. Time is slipping through the cracks and leaving me with an increasingly older brood to tend and nurture and love. It's that amazing, complex, beautiful pattern of life again. Savor it.
 
Dy