October Beauty

What a beautiful day!  I love October surprises of beautiful weather after a cold snap.    

 Daphne and I made the most of it.  After having a bit of a whirlwind, crazy obligations first part of the week, it was just Daphne and me this morning...and some laundry.  We played Barbies.  I was assigned Barbie and Chelsea while Daphne was Ken, Raquel (that poor girl), and Skipper.  Then we watched Sleeping Beauty while Daphne built a Duplos farm with our 30-year-old legos (Thanks Grandma Dee) and I folded away.  Then we packed up Daph's bike and took off to where else besides DeMeyer.  Daphne was excited to see the water gone out of the ditch we floated and splashed in all summer long.  She pedaled over it like a pro.  Her legs go so speedy-quick as she causes her bike to tear down the sidewalk at warp speed.  Hard to remember the tantrums and fears of June or even later in the summer after she had a pretty good crash.  She can do everything except advanced tricks and feels so at ease and again pedals like quite the little speed demon.  It made my heart happy to see her confidence and skill.  Daphne can do hard things.  I can do hard things.  We can accomplish hard things.  Remember.  The seemingly impossible becomes possible with persistent action and faith. 

 

Then, of course, we had to walk the dry (though a bit muddy in areas) ditch.  Daphne insisted I follow her through the culvert and, thus, I did, walking like a Frankenstein's monster to avoid getting wet shoes.  The light was golden and warm and almost surreal as we explored and identified which branch probably stabbed Matt in the back as he floated this summer and which large rocks my bum dragged on as I was tubing.  We even met a black cat ("like Pluto!") who was also exploring the empty ditch.  He didn't want to be our friend.  Daphne was extra thrilled when I suggested we go get her a corn dog and fries from Sonic before preschool, and it was a lucky day, a short line and fast service. 

As we had our little outing, I couldn't help but feel thankful, despite thinking whoa is me plenty over the years as I have worked from home and felt half-bad at work and half-good at mothering or vice-versa, I have had multiple opportunities to have the flexibility of enjoying these spontaneous times with my children.  I'm so thankful for that.  In a couple more years I will be tied down in the working world 9-10 months a year.  These golden mornings will no longer involve me and a Daphne or me and a Lily.  And it's an okay thing.  They'll all be in school, after all, but I'm sure there will be some kind of mourning period such as last pumpkin patch field trip, last first birthday (so many lasts), but there will be new wonderful things to move on to.  Nothing could take the place of being mom to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, but seeing my kids grow, develop, conquer, be kind, and learn...heck, seeing me grow and learn and try to always be kinder...it certainly has its rewards, and I will look for new golden moments that look different but still beautiful and cherish memories of the old ones.

And maybe, just maybe, the weather will spill over into next week, and we can party some more...or at the very least enjoy the weather as we clean up tree this weekend.  I will share about that tomorrow or soon.