I don’t want to know how many miles I put on my car just driving back and forth to stuff this week. (I’ve already complained about that here so I’ll try to reign it in today.)

I was thinking about the passage of time though and how life with kids absolutely goes in seasons.

You’ve got the early years where you stay home a lot because nap time and routine are precious things no sane momma wants to mess with.

Then you’ve got the extra hands on years where you are needed for EVERYTHING. Bum wiping and hand holding and shoe tying and you always have to know where everyone is all the time.

Then the years where kids play so well by themselves that you feel sort of useless – but in the best kind of way. You still need to be home. Eight year olds can’t do all the dishes or watch themselves, but they breeze in and out of playing and you just serve as a referee.

Then you’ve got the years where the kids have activities – they begin to have lives outside of the home. And yet. They cannot drive to any of these events. So you become the chauffeur.

Next I know is the stage where I wave and say, “Text me when you get to work.”

I’m not rushing into that stage but I’m not living in dread of it either. They’re all good, these stages. And all hard, too, of course. I’m not complaining about any of it. I want to be a parent. I want to be here.

So bring on all the stages.

funny

Like those stages I was writing about already, one stage that has passed for our family is the stage where kids can’t pronounce words correctly and they make hilarious errors. Where “magazine” is pronounced “mazagine” and “cinnamon” is called “cimmanon”. I miss those funny adorable pronunciations and I miss those misunderstandings kids have with language that always cracked me up.

Our new funny is still a good time and I like the sarcasm and witty banter that is tossed about at our dinner table and in the car and every which way.

Sometimes funny still marches into the living room too.

fashionable

I love big earrings. We all know this.

At the Noonday show at Lost Valley this year Brooke had out these gigantic wooden hoops.

And they’re shockingly light so you can actually wear them all day long. (Although I will admit, sometimes they get caught on my actual shoulder. So that’s funny.)

(London took these photos for me. It was a comical photo shoot, you can be certain of that.)

flavorful

I should be disqualified from this one currently. We’ve eaten pretty poorly this week given that mornings we were heading out of the door and lunch we were stopping at home for a brief millisecond to shove food in before heading to the next class or activity or appointment (did I mention we had five dentist appointments this week?) or we relied on a quick stop at ye old fast food. Also, for dinner we were supposed to have home made pizza – remember? But I never did purchase the cheese. So Mosely made the dough and then crafted it into breadsticks. We warmed up the sauce and dipped in the breadsticks and served pepperoni as a side dish! And watermelon. So. There’s that.

But I will show you this combo —

It’s called The Elvis at a cute local cafe here in our town. Peanut butter. Bananas. Honey. Toasted. It’s SO good. We’ve tried it at home too – I didn’t do the fancy chocolate drizzle at home but maybe I should next time!

faithful

I’m a broken record here. But that’s fine by me.

I’m so grateful for good friends. Over and over. People who say, “Remember what’s true. Remember what’s true.”

Because always and forever there are battles to be fought. There are hearts to be mended and bruises to be healed. There’s rain each day with the sunshine. This is how we all live. And, for me, the light breaking through is showing up in the text from a buddy, the warm hug from a friend, the laughter and the camaraderie.

Sometimes I get to be the light for someone else. (Isn’t that a kindness of God?) And sometimes I get to step into the light someone is holding up for me.