I'm finally writing, if only for a few precious (stolen) minutes! Yeah, that's us above, in the process of enjoying vacation a couple of weeks back.
It has been a whirlwind since I last posted, including celebrating our 8th anniversary, two weeks in the Pacific northwest on what will turn out to be our last big twin-less vacation, and then a quick start to summer school the day we got home, which is pretty much a full-time job. No time to sit down and catch my breath writing, but I guess that has been pretty much a good thing.
Anyhow, I've been thinking a lot during the last month about being thankful "in the middle" of stuff, "in the process", not just at the end. I heard someone (grandparent type) talk just a bit before our trip about how one of the main priorities of parenting should be to enjoy the process. 'Cause if you don't, you suddenly find yourself at the end that you've been planning for, having missed everything else along the way. That really stuck with me, not just for parenting, but for everything...
So, instead of just planning for the end of the summer, arrival of babies, or where we'll be living in a year, I've been trying to step back and appreciate what I'm in the process of right now. For me, that especially means enjoying these little babies. I was bound and determined to savor every minute of my 3rd baby's pregnancy, but when 3 turned into 4, I was suddenly too tired and keeping track of too many changes and risks to enjoy it quite as much as I wanted.
A couple of weeks of vacation are excellent for tweaking that distracted mindset. Add to that a couple of weeks of work, where free minutes become like gold, and I am starting to look at things differently. (Below: pondering Oregon!)
So I'm in the process of growing these little babies inside of me - here's what I'm stopping to enjoy -
- Their big daddy being a big help and very patient with me! Getting to know him as the father of "many" rather than just two. Including things like minivan shopping.
- Little girls loving swimming and biking and getting better at the them every afternoon.
- Having a healthy body to donate to science - i.e. the science of caring for babies who require that I give up some of my favorite activities and instead fall asleep early, pee late, and eat as often as possible. It's easy when all I have to do to take care of the three of us is take care of ME, I guess!
- Not being on bed rest - oh, I am loving that I can at least still swim, and even walking isn't horrible. Glad I can do at least that! And without having to be laden down with winter parkas.
- Energy to get to know and help one more class of students. They might be my last on campus class in quite a while.
Life's a kind of fun process, when I stop long enough to notice! Hope you're noticing what's going on around you this summer too :).
PS - It's two little boys!!! Pics of vacation and maybe the babies again coming soon. Our ultrasound last Friday looked great - babies are the same size and right on target for where 16 week old kiddos should be. Hurray!
