Snippets

Life with a new baby is mostly a blur, but there are many bright little moments too. Thank you, cameras, for freezing time for us so we can hang on to these for a little while.

Hermione is still tiny and precious. You'd think after five children we'd be getting tired of all this baby care, but honestly, I think it just gets sweeter. In fact, when I look back to how stressed out we were parenting our first child, I'd even venture to say that it's easier now.

Pause, to separate two screaming hellions, respectfully ask two children to return to their room for quiet reading time, and nurse starving infant.

Maybe not. 

I think that if you learn anything after 11 years, it's that time whooshes by too quickly. I'm even savouring (maybe more like toughing) the sleepless nights, knowing that all too soon Mio won't even want to cuddle any more. Rafe has already gone on strike. No more baby. Not even pats on the head. He is so cute yet so dignified, we're hard put to treat him with graveness...

I think we've permanently damaged his ego by pretending not hear him when he asks for a haircut. (This winter, Rafey, not yet...) I just can't bring myself to put scissors into his curls! Could you?

We have started home schooling again. What a monkey circus! Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing more harm than good. But Will is very encouraging, always pointing out that we have happy children. When I fret about the academics moving at a snail's pace, that is precisely the moment that a child comes to me and says, Hey mom, I'm memorizing the Periodic Table, or beg me to please, please read History to him! Or after months of fighting over math lessons, to find that a child can effortlessly calculate in real life. Then Will and I look at each other knowingly, as if to say, Don't you dare let on that this is educational! 

Will is writing his thesis proposal and cutting and stacking the winter's firewood, planning our fall renovations. (Our finances come and go in big chunks, so as soon as the student loans come in it's GO TIME). 

Real home schooling, not just pretending that creative play and all-day art is an academic achievement!

The last precious photos of Matthias pre-haircut and the first of the firewood.

Cozy log house..

Winter soon! We're learning to roll with the seasons. To acknowledge the glory of the present moment. To breathe deep when the chaos overwhelms us.

My winter's project is: learn to be a good house keeper and cut down on chaos. It's only taken eleven years and five children to realize that good housekeeping is possible, just counter-intuitive (for me). But it's never too late.

I've decided that the first step is to give away everybody else's stuff.

My other winter's project: re-visit the Plays of Shakespeare. I'm starting with Winter's Tale because there's a character named Hermione.

And speaking of Hermione...


Swoon! Sweet baby, I love you so much my heart will burst!