What a gift it is, this little hiatus from all our norms of work, school and early mornings. We went to one of our favorite places,the Nature Center. I love watching it change through the seasons but there is something so peaceful about it in the dead of winter when colors are dulled and trees are bare and delicate.
I love taking pictures. I love how it helps me see things and helps fleeting times linger. I love the light in Harper's eyes when he sees his brother. Already this precious brother relationship is forming. Juden is so gentle and adoring of our baby, eager to help him stand and watch every new thing he learns.
These days I am reflective of what has grown in our hearts during Advent and Christmas. I'm thankful for each day and the mercy I am shown. I'm overwhelmed by the beauty of these dear ones God gave me. And I'm eager for a brand new year full of hope, promise, growth and new goals. Some list making is on the horizon but for today I am being still in the joy that is bigger than the hard work of raising littles, grace in how quickly children forgive when I make mistakes. I'm resting in that thing which grows in the midst of sleepy looks exchanged in the middle of the night with a crying baby between us. I'm reveling in the simple beautiful prayer uttered by a child that has almost brought me to tears with obstinacy. I am drinking in this whole lovely exhausting season of nursing babe and sleepless nights, mud on clean floors, endless questions, constant laughter, not enough lap space and not enough hands and all the tender chaos of living and loving together.
I've always been a dreamer but when I stop to really look, this is more lovely than them all.
