Sweet Spot

I was reading this today and it caused me to reevaluate.

I have been trying to live in JOY lately, and often, not always, succeed. You see, 2 weeks from tomorrow the kids and I will be getting on an airplane with one way tickets to CO. Back home. My heart is joyful, my brain is frazzled and I am getting a little twitchy from the stress.

We are buying a house (that I have never seen) enrolling kids in school (that I have never visited) and living in limbo while Matt finishes up stuff here and we start life there and...oh my.

Jamison is getting his molars, all 4 of them. My normally crappy sleeper is worse, if that was even possible. I lovely little neighbor girls has a little issue with lice (and a much bigger issue of a broken family and being shuttled from home to home, but that is a different post) and so my little girls have been repeatedly combed and groomed to prevent the infestation from spreading. I am attempting to pack up a family of 6. Notice I say "attempting".

And yet our summer has been delightfully low key. Days spent splashing in the $5 kiddie pool in the back yard, riding bikes, going out for ice cream, swinging in the hammock, walking to the park, play dates with friends.

I must say I am particularly enjoying the ages of my girls. While not quite as big as those in the bloggers post, they are so fun. Yesterday Eliana made everyone brownies for a spa day they had. She painted her sisters finger nails and poured there drinks. Last night we all cuddled in bed and she read the story to her sisters.

Addilyn's fabulous sense of humor has grown delightfully, she is the first to get a joke and laugh at a passing comment. She can see the humor in life and I love it. She is beautifully brown from the summer sun and still crawls up in my lap to snuggle. She is starting to read and can't wait for kindergarten.

If you want to hear how things really are, just ask a 3 year old. Honesty pours out of Boo-Bellies mouth with abandon. She is so funny without trying. Hugely expressive (to the point of melodrama) and so much fun. Still little enough to be my baby girl, but big enough to hold her own with the sisters.

Jamison, half the time I want to tape him in the corner to keep him from destroying the house and himself and the other part of the day I just want to sit and watch him explore. Wild abandon doesn't quite capture the spirit of this little dude. He is communicating and moving. Yesterday he spent a good 10 minutes trying to convince the kitten to ride the bike.

Sweet spot.

It would be so easy to be too busy to really enjoy my kids, but I know they will grow so quickly and I will miss this. Jamison is my last baby and i don't want to wish away his littleness. Eliana is blazing the trail and I want to be available for that too. I am so blessed if I only choose to stop and see.