i forget how much energy it takes to mother a baby. he's a joy. but i'm tired. we totally unschooled this week and i enjoyed it. i had two different people tell me this week, after finding i have 6 children, that i 'look great'. i wonder what they think a mother of six should look like, cause i think i'm fairly haggard right about now! one of them told me it takes a special kind of grace to mother so many kids. i felt that she had a special grace about her, for the way she spoke to me.
today i longed to go down to the river and let the kids frolic, but of course it was one of those days. f has a crazy infection on his finger that i was afraid was a staph infection, but no. just an ugly kid germy thing. thankfully. he got a sticker at the dr. and i wonder if they ever have any that aren't characters. you know, happy bunnies or ninja cats or something.
speaking of f, he has 2 coles. cole the ninja and cole his friend. each time we talk about 'tole' we must specify. today i found one of them in the car. f crowed, 'tole the ninja!'
i stopped at the craft store to get something for a project the girls are working on, and found the best fabric ever for l's blankie. it's such a cliche, because of his name, and we've had a lot of jokes about that from other people. but he's really been using his sibling's hand me downs. a blanket i made in the hopes that my first was a girl. and she was. but after the second girl it was packed away for so long (flowers) that this time i finally decided, HE doesn't care! i want to snuggle him in something i love to look at, even if it is girly. but it will be good to have something he can enjoy too. this fabric has little animals. kind of pop-y.
i;ve been working on scout achievements with b these last 2 weeks. they really set the bar high. it is not difficult, but it takes a bit of effort. he's fairly close to earning his bear badge. yeah. mothers really are the power behind accomplishment.
my tulips came up this week. i have a second round of daffodils. my peonies are budding up. the plum tree lost its pretty petals and now is that burgandy purple which i really dislike. but the daffodils make up for it. then the iris will come and the daisies. spring really brings hope and beauty to my life.
it's humbling to think that though i may be feeling waves of challenge overcoming me, i know there will be a future where i look back and feel nostalgia for these days. my brother recently wrote that this is his 'golden time'. i wonder what our opinion will be in the eternities.
