Just like breathing

Last night I wanted to be able to say something special about Mother's Day. I sat down to do that before I went to bed and got started several times only to stop and delete everything. The truth is, I still feel a bit like a phony when I'm being celebrated on Mother's Day. Maybe that's due to my relative newness on the job (I've only been performing those duties for about five years now to my mom's 34), or maybe I'm just still skittish of the job title. If someone asked me about myself I'm not sure "mother" would be the first descriptor out of my mouth. I consider myself so many other things besides, so many other things that require work and dedication, like being a runner, or a reader, or a seamstress (because sewer definitely isn't right), or a cook. Which is not to say that being a mother isn't a matter of dedication and work, but motherhood was a choice I made those five years ago and now it is simply a part of me. It is like breathing. Maybe I feel funny about celebrating my motherhood the way I would feel funny about celebrating my breathing. Each breath is joyous, each day as a mother is joyous. To look at it any other way would be folly.

So that was yesterday. It was a beautiful, warmish, sunny day. We cleaned up and relaxed, we went to the store. My boys gave me a really special present (Proust, third edition uniform 12 volume set, 1949) and some really sweet cards. We had our own mothers over and my aunt and we all celebrated motherhood together. And breathing, too, because the spring air was so fresh and sweet it would be just the day to celebrate something like breathing.

And today I woke up and I was still breathing and I was still a mother, and both were precious. Even as we did laundry and shelved books at the library. Even as we watered new plants and cleaned up the yard. Even as we sat outside in the still vibrant sun reading our own books separately, and then the Aeneid together. Especially as we walked to the mailbox pretending to sidestep the Harpies (robins) and to run from the Cyclops (tall pines) only to be blown to Carthage (the park) in a violent storm summoned by Juno. Yes, especially then it was all precious. See? Just like breathing.

Spring green

When I realized that Easter was due to come very, very late this year my first thoughts were of beautiful green grass and warm sunshine, and how wonderful those things would be for photos and egg hunts and general spring enjoyment. The snow that we got just a few days ago made me skeptical, but both yesterday and today dawned warm and bright. The smell of spring is finally in the air, and that beautiful bright green really did add to photos after all.

Actually we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful spring weekend, and late is better than never. We spent yesterday in downtown Ann Arbor at a used book store closing sale (sad), and then in the yard and gardens doing a little clean up. Jon even mowed, and Calvin and I enjoyed the warm afternoon with books on the deck. We dyed eggs the natural way.

And today, the generally accepted day of spring celebration, was a little cooler, but just as pretty. We spent they morning with family, brunching at the old train station and walking around the new afterwards.

We'd made a spring basket for Calvin, filling it with a few of his favorite things, like Legos and books, and we spent the afternoon resting and enjoying those things. I took portraits with the new camera, something that didn't go as well as I might have liked, but it is a learning process. I have to edit the rest of them, but I'll post them tomorrow.

With rain, but relative warmth, on the docket for this week we soaked up as much of this weekend's weather gift as we could. And we are hoping that this week's wet and warmer weather will bring with it an explosion of leaves and flowers. We're ready.

Working on it

If spring is about moving forward, about cleaning, and about renewal, we're taking all of that very seriously right now.

Calvin is on a juggernaut's path of mental absorption. His reading has taken off, he's all over math concepts, and the middle ages have become almost a passion.

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with extended family and met the newest, tiniest addition.

And today we spent an entire day taking care of a few issues around the house, like the broken dishwasher (that makes hearing music or TV, when we want to watch it, all but impossible), the un-backed-up sump pump (that visits my nightmares every spring along with the torrential rains), and the frustrating camera (that has begun to stick only when I really, really want it to work).

But while spring may be about renewal, all of that renewing business is pretty exhausting. With the camera issue taken care of, though, and the promise of warmer weather in the works, there will probably be a plethora of pictures and stories to share tomorrow. For now, good night and good luck.

There is spring in my kitchen

There is spring in our kitchen...

comfort in our sitting room...

imagination in our hallway...

and love in our play room...

We're all back together, and with one of us tucked in bed the other two are ready for our one night of TV. That's a short and sweet one for you.

Knights vs. Egyptian Gods

Sunny and cold. It's like the spring is taunting us. I look out the window in the morning at vivid blue skies and golden sun that just beckon us outside, but it's cold. Strangely enough, I would have called these temperatures warm just a month ago, and we didn't hesitate to go out in it, but now that we've had a taste of a warming trend the low to mid thirties is keeping us in.

So we stayed inside and played in the middle ages this morning. We finished his knight's helmet.

And I'm pretty sure that's Sir Gawain battling Anubis.

We did get out of the house for dinner, though, and to take a field trip for one last (or first, in Calvin's case) stop by Grampa's office before he leaves it for good later this week. It's really a very pretty building with lots of history.

And since tomorrow is not only the release of the book I've been waiting for, but also supposed to make it over 40 degrees, I think we'll spend a little more time out and about then. Every once in a while you just have stay home and play knights and Egyptians, though. I wonder if that's anything like pirates and robots.