Pictures of our walk in the woods...and a blurb.

I've been having a bit of a tough time lately. I've been so tired out, and run down, and all the regular stuff you'd expect from a mom of a 5-year-old and 18-month-old who has diabetes and a crazy but very normal happy life and etc etc. And now we all have colds, and my throat hurts a lot so I can't even talk much, and the baby's fussy, and all that. BUT....today was just incandescently beautiful, full of glowingly perfect moments I just want to capture and keep forever, full of reminders of why it's great to be me. Full of moments of love and joy and laughter amid all the normal chaos of life...like the boys running around outside, chasing each other around the tractor...and around and around and around! And squealing with laughter. Or inside, in the late afternoon, putting on music and pulling up a chair for each boy and making banana bread together and everyone dancing around and being silly. Or the boys dumping out all the Legos on the kitchen table (hello, huge mess!) and then playing sweetly together for however long it took me to sweep the floor and unload the dishwasher. And then cleaning up without a fuss! Or just the feeling of accomplishment I got from getting to do dishes, laundry, sweep and vacuum, play outside, play fetch with the dog, make banana bread, and have dinner timed perfectly so it was all done at the same exact moment, about one minute after Ben walked through the door. And since I got to take a nap for the first time in forever (the key to our beautiful day, in case you hadn't guessed), I didn't feel TOO exhausted at the end of it!

So. A good day. Not very different from all the other days. But these are the moments I want to remember. I want to hold on to all this blessedness after the sleeplessness is a distant memory. I have so, so many reasons to be thankful. Here are just a couple from the other day, when we went on a "nature walk" in our own woods:

I find this picture funny because here we are out in our back woods, going on a hike, looking at nature, finding cool things like bunny skeletons and funnel web spiders and monarchs...and yet Nathan is pretending to chat on his "phone." It's also funny because that is so not who Ben and I are! But Nathan loves to make everything into a phone. That kid also loves water more than I ever thought one could love water. He gets more excited about a drink of water than most kids do when they see a cool construction vehicle. Sound effects included!

This guy was quite glad he got to come along. I wish everyone was this easy to please!

Possibly the cutest picture ever! Love those boys' energy...wish I could get some of it...glad we all got to get out and run around in the woods the other day!

More pictures to come soon, if I get the chance. Also, if the "chasing around the tractor" pictures turned out well. It's hard to capture a good picture when everyone's moving around so crazily!

Thank you, world, for such a beautiful day!

BOOZE is Nathan for cows.

Today, the kids and I had a good day. Those have been somewhat few and far between lately, and I'm really glad we got to go out and play at the playground, get errands done, etc. While we were at the playground, I got a call from an old friend, a friend I made when I was James' age and who I haven't seen since James was about Nathan's age. This friend was coming through town and wanted to stop quick and see us, so we met at the library. We were discussing how we hadn't seen each other since J was N's age, blah blah blah, and my friend told James, "The last time I saw you, you were as little as your brother, you couldn't even talk! Just like he can't talk now." And James immediately corrected him: "Well, actually, he CAN say UH-OH!"

The kid tells it like it is. Although Nathan can also now say a host of other words. His first word was goat! And now there are things like "boop" (potty business of any kind) "mup" (milk) "up" (...up) "more" (more) "bite" (bite) and especially "more bite." But it was pretty funny, as Nathan's go-to word for any kind of excitement is UH-OH!

Also....at the playground, he told one of my mommy friends that he wasn't sure he could go down the tube slide because "it scares me out of the bejeezus."

Gotta love him. There are so many moments like these that I just want to document somewhere! But I have neither the time nor the memory, so I wrote this down as quickly as I could tonight, disorganized and un-pithy as it is. You're welcome, boys. I love you!

And....zzzzzzzzzzzzz......