After I put Lola to bed for her morning nap, I got busy making Orange Cardamom Bread for our (belated) St. Lucia Day celebration tomorrow. Leif never leaves my side when there is cooking or baking going on. He was reading the recipe, pouring, stirring.... and kneeding his own little tiny loaf of bread. I adore his cheerful spirit and his little boy hands.
Luke joined us a little late, but he really gets into his work. Baking=sprinkles in his opinion. I think he had more sprinkles than dough. And more flour on his face than on the counter.
I think bread exists to remind us to live slow. I should have listened. I really can only accomplish ONE thing each day. But I forgot.
Where was Levi? He was in the living room listening to an audio book. His hands have to work while his imagination is engaged....
And Little Miss Lola Angel? She was taking a 3+ hour nap. After she woke up and had a snack, I couldn't help taking a gazillion pictures of her. (See the slideshow.)
Leif was trying to be helpful and get her to smile. It didn't work. The boys knew I was distracted, so they brought in all their pillows and blankets and were building a 'castle wall' on the other side of the bed.
This might have been the point when I thought, hey, it would be fun to document our day, today! Which is probably precisely the moment the day started to tank.
I ended up with a disaster zone of a house (remember the boys helping make bread in the kitchen? and building castles in the bedroom?), one hundred things on the do-right-this-second-to-do-list, a baby who needed attention, boys who needed parenting, a shirt covered in spit-up, a massive baby-diaper blow-out (and subsequent baby bath and 30 minutes of scrubbing out the brand-new white outfit and bouncy seat cover), piano lessons, ten projects left undone (wasn't I the ambitious one?), and a hubby finally home who had to rescue me (and figure out where to get dinner....).
So, now it is almost 10 PM. I shouldn't be going to bed, but I'm going to anyway. And maybe a miracle will happen and the house will have sorted itself out overnight. And all the to-do list will still get done before my family comes over for dinner tomorrow. Anyone want to place bets?
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
~Emily Dickinson
Such a busy time, but such a blessed life. Keep taking pictures and take it one day at a time. No one will care tomorrow that all the stuff on your to do list was not checked off!
ReplyDeleteHave a blessed Christmas Heidi. I hope to see you again someday.
Lovely photos, but the last one: fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and read faithfully though I hardly ever leave a comment. Your post reminded me so much of myself and the struggle between making the most of these too short days with my 4 kiddos and also keeping a house running.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.remodelingthislife.com/2010/12/14/the-victory-of-noticing/ This post really helped me and has become my new mantra "Noticing is the victory."
Thanks for your honesty and your beautiful pictures.
Clara
Perfect quote. Love the peek into your day!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'm so glad I found your blog when I did. Our lives are quite different in a lot of ways but the similarities we share in homeschooling and children's ages makes coming here such a comforting thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI can relate so much to what you write about. It makes the craziness of my own life seem more normal. I feel like nodding while reading every single post!
I'm just now watching the slideshow of Lola and it's so cute! The smiling picture of course is adorable but I also really like the pictures of her a little later where her eyebrows are furrowed :-) Such a cutie!
Oh I love your days! The photos seem so real I can smell the bread. :)
ReplyDeleteLove this place you've created, Heidi
Oh...your progression throughout the day...LOL. Sounds VAGUELY familiar! :) LOVE these shots! :) The feet of the baking boys...aww!
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, this is the kind of day I'm very familiar with... although it's been just a little while since I've dealt with a diaper blow-out... how quickly we forget! I hope the rest of your week went better! Merry Christmas!!
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