She lives!

Yes, I am still among the living. But a few days ago I didn’t feel that way after a strange GI bug took a hold of me and turned me inside out quite literally. This was like the Master Cleanse times 1,000. Not that I’ve ever tried any sort of cleanse. The good news is no one else in my house fell prey to the bug despite me having visible symptoms for almost five days. So it’s all good, and my stomach is getting there, too.

A few random things…

First, I read this quote a few days ago:

It seems to me that since I’ve had children, I’ve grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

– Anne Tyler

(HT: Literary Mama)

I feel the same way. I don’t write nearly as much these days but when I do, the words are often more emotionally layered and perhaps a bit wiser, too.

Lately, every time I do try to write something happens to interrupt the flow of words. My baby-turned-toddler wakes up at a time when he never wakes up. Our Internet goes down. The colorful, spinning wheel of death (you know the one I mean) pops up on my usually reliable Mac. A child must right this very minute show me a photo of an atlas moth (just happened). And I’m left wondering if these are all signs that writing just isn’t supposed to be a big part of this season in my life. I do have two big speeches I must sit down and write, so I’ll just have to figure out a way to make time to squeeze some words out of me for those.

In other news, I wanted to express my gratitude to Mommy Page for the generous write-up. If I’d known they planned on headlining my interview with “fun spring activities,” I would have tried to come up with something a little more creative and original than outdoor read-a-thons and puddle jumping. Then again, nothing really beats old-fashioned mud-sloshing as these blast-from-the-past photos I recently stumbled across reminded me:

 They also reminded me of three other things. First, I’ve got to start taking more photos again. Poor Thomas (our fourth) is such a cliche because he has no baby book and not nearly as many photos documenting his every move and milestone. I have several thousand of my firstborn just sleeping! For the record, little man, the dearth of fancy scrapbooks and photographs is in no way indicative of our love for you or how animated and full of wonder you are. My goodness, you’re fun to watch and so expressive and happy, too.

Second, I want be that carefree mom who let her kids get their dresses dirty for an afternoon of fun. I love having a bigger brood, but I have noticed that too often I’m so busy just making sure everyone is fed and where they need to be that I’m not always as fun as I might have once been. Maybe that’s what I really should be doing this Lent is not just trying to pray more and better (my prayer life has sucked lately for lack of a better word) but also to just have fun with my kids.

Because, and this is the third thing seeing these old photos did for me, these kids are growing up so quickly. I honestly didn’t remember that Rachel, who is now approaching the six-year mark, was not so long ago so round-faced resembling more of a baby than the little girl she is today.

Well, I’d planned on writing a bit more, but Thomas is reaching up saying, “Maaaw milk.” (Translation: Mama’s Milk.)