On skipping and the wonders of childhood.

My Halle is currently 4 years old and she skips. And I mean she skips everywhere! In the kitchen, up the stairs, to the school bus, around the house, in the driveway. I must tell you, it brings me so much joy to see her skipping.

One of my favorite bloggers - Katherine from www.raisingfive.com, wrote this about motherhood:

I will never forget a conversation I had with my mom once. I was an exhausted young mother, drowning in the incessance of the job, (is that a word, even?). Somewhere in the middle of my dronings about the difficulty I was facing, she got quiet and said, "When I think about the years with you kids at home [there were four of us], it's almost like it was all a dream."

Now that I am but two years away from my first child leaving home I am beginning to understand what she meant.

These years are frustrating, tiring, monotonous, tedious. I have never been so angry, so bewildered, so entirely consumed with discouragement, fear, or doubt.

And yet...they are filled with a kind of wonder and happiness and hope and the breathtaking exhilaration of looking up one day and realizing that that amorphous blip on the sonogram suddenly resembles a mature young man or woman (or, depending on where you are, maybe they are just getting, say, potty trained). And that the circle of life is about to come around and give you whiplash.

I completely identify with Katherine's sentiments and they bring so much perspective. I became a mother at the age of 23. Now, at 33, I realize how completely not ready I was and how difficult that adjustment was for me. In some respect, I have heard moms who started their families at a much later age than I, express similar frustrations and struggles similar to what I experienced transitioning into parenthood. Perhaps certain frustrations just come with the territory. Nevertheless, now that I am ten years in (I cannot believe I have a 10-year-old, but that is another post), I can see how indeed time is fleeting. It is really beginning to feel like the past years (when I was pregnant and breastfeeding, and trying to control toddlers) now almost feels like a dream.

If I could go back some 5-10 years, I think I would have relaxed a bit. I would not have been so focused on being the perfect homemaker or mother. Instead, I would have taken more time to savor sweet and delightful things like lullabies, silly songs, and skipping.

So, yep. That's all I have for you today...skipping. I am enjoying it very much at the moment and hoping she doesn't stop anytime soon :-)