To be or not to be...

When I first became a parent, I knew there would be many things I'd need to teach my children.  But I didn't realize then how much my kids would teach me.  This summer, with all four kids home, I'm learning the lesson of being.  You see, I am a fan of doing.   Yet if I measured my success by what I accomplished in a given day, most days I'd be mighty disappointed.  A table is wiped, only to need wiping again.  Diapers need changing, food needs making, and the laundry - let's not even talk about the laundry.  Dan calls this work pushing back the ocean.  Perhaps that's why I enjoy sewing so much - it's one thing in my life that actually stays done.

I wondered what our days would look like this summer, the five of us spending all of our time together.   So far, they've been surprisingly simple.

Building forts has been a popular activity.  (As I type this the kids are playing neighbor puppies - in a fort, of course.)

As far as I'm concerned, Legos may be one of the world's greatest inventions.

The kids encourage me to pause from the doing and hang out for awhile.   They like when we listen to music together.  They enjoy family conversations.  Important discussions have sprung out of the otherwise mundane and ordinary.  Jude asks lots of questions about this crazy world.  Some of them are hard questions.  Sometimes, I don't have the answers but the wise sage, Google, does.  Other times we all have to rest in I don't know. 

Yesterday the girls were coloring quietly and invited me to pull up a chair.  Sit down and work on your hand stitching, Mom, while we color.  They didn't want to talk.  They only wanted me to be with them. 

It was an invitation I couldn't refuse.