Reflections

I love this photo. I had to come up with a blog title around it just so I had a reason to post it. I took it last weekend while I was in Colorado with my brothers and dad, celebrating Dad's 70th birthday and getting away from it all. The candles say it all. I mean, when do I have time to light candles like that? Enjoy a hearth bathed in candlelight while my brother stokes the wood fire and we cozy up under blankets in a cabin in the mountains and wax nostalgic about... politics? Well, I can't say anyone was particularly nostalgic about politics, but politics is what my family gets passionate about, so the topic did come up. Anyway, it was a wonderful trip in a stunning setting and a fantastic chance to connect with the first three most important men in my life. My brothers and dad and I have not had a getaway just the four of us since I was about 13 years old, so it seemed about time to make it happen. I'm glad we did.

Garrett, as always, did a fabulous job with the little people while I was gone. Never one to sit around and "do nothing" when Mommy leaves town, they indeed kept busy with nature walks, visits with friends, trips to the museum and the kids' first banana split experience. No wonder they love daddy time! I heard that Amelia launched a protest when she heard I was coming home, though she seemed to change her tune once I walked in the door. Tuesday morning I awoke to two little giggling girls on either side of me in bed, neither of them appearing disappointed that I had reappeared in our home during the night. And Gabriel so far this week has reiterated, again, that it would really be best if I could go wherever he goes and he could go wherever I go because he just wants to snuggle with me all the time and it's not fair that he can't. It would be a lie to say I mind him feeling this way, as long as it remains a phase. Honestly, snuggling is pretty darn awesome. In fact I asked Amelia tonight what's her favorite thing to do in the whole world and she said snuggling and reading books together, just me and her. I have a feeling she might say something slightly different if, say, Garrett were to ask her the same question (the phrase "just me and you" can sometimes mean several different "you's"), but all this to say that snuggling is a favorite in this household and it was fun to come home to that.

I remember lamenting a while back that age four was still pretty much the same hard as age three, which was to say that it was perhaps the hardest age we've been through, in my personal and completely subjective opinion. I don't want to put my foot in my mouth here, but I have to wonder if perhaps four and a half has taken us to a new plane. I'm not making any official declarations here, but I do feel a bit less frazzled in recent memory. Just as busy, but less like I'm running in a hamster wheel, forever moving but never getting anywhere. Life is good right now. Busy and good, and gosh can those kids give good hugs. That always helps. As does slowly improving weather, fresh air, and a healthy dose of remembering that today's the day I have, so I might as well enjoy it while it's here. Happy almost-end-of-February! Sunshine is on the way.