Anything But Ordinary

Six weeks and a day after Moriah's birth, we're starting to find our normal.  Today was that kind of day: plain ol' regular.  I didn't go anywhere, our dear friend Kathryn came this afternoon to play with the boys as is our Tuesday afternoon routine, I accomplished a little laundry today, we had spaghetti for supper, the boys played outside a lot, I watched the horse in our pasture and admired her shiny coat and her amazing lawn-mowing abilities, Josiah and David picked potato bugs off our potato plants and earned a penny for each one they killed, I held and nursed and snuggled Moriah who was blessedly much more calm this evening than last, my mom and I did the supper dishes, Jeff did a little garden work, etc.  :)  Nice and normal.

Other parts of our day...

* I spent some time working in my bedroom which has been an unequivocal disaster area since Moriah's birth.  Maternity clothes that need packed away, non-maternity clothes that need organized in the closet and dresser, papers from the hospital, baby gifts that I need to find a spot for, and all kinds of other stuff have been littering our room and, frankly, driving me nuts.  It was reassuring today to make progress in that room, and I have hope that it will someday (soon?) be once again a peaceful place!  :)  While putting away some gift bags, I especially admired this one that our kind neighbor Barbara brought over a few days ago with a gift for Moriah inside.  Someday I'll take a picture of Moriah wearing the gift, but meanwhile I had to take a picture of the gift bag, because it was just so cute!

 I often use the expression "cute as a button," even though I don't understand how that expression started.  Are buttons really cute?  Well, on this gift bag they are.  ;-)

* I read a few chapters from By the Shores of Silver Lake to the boys this morning.  And I cried.  Why?  Because Grace was lost.  And no one could find her.  And Pa said terribly, "The Big Slough."  And Pa and Ma ran there to look because they were afraid she had drowned.  And I thought about what if Moriah...  And I just had to cry.  A little.  :)

* We did a simple science experiment, mostly for the benefit of Tobin and Shav, about wheels and what shapes roll the best.  (Can wheels be made out of triangles or squares?  No!  Why not?)  :)

* I sat on the front porch steps with Tobin this morning and cut his fingernails and mine, letting the nails fall to the ground--the advantage of cutting fingernails outdoors!  Then we watched in amazement as an ant--a teeny, tiny one--came along and picked up a huge fingernail and carried it across a horizontal surface, then down a vertical(!) surface, and then into a crack in the concrete.  Ants are amazing.  They have an awesome Creator.  "What would the ant do with the fingernail?" we wondered.  David's guess: the ant would use it to build his house.  :)

* The most exciting, noteworthy event of the day happened this evening.  David learned how to ride a bike without training wheels!!!  I'm not sure why we didn't work on this skill last summer; but as the weather warmed this year, I knew without a doubt that this would be the year that David would shed the training wheels.  A few days ago, I worked with him briefly, holding the bike to steady him as he slowly rode along.  But today, our neighbors came over to play, and they brought with them a bike that was a better size for David than the one we had.  He hopped on it, managed to ride a very short distance at first, but kept with it and increased his distance each time.  It wasn't long at all until he was able to ride up and down our driveway from our garage to our basketball goal, gaining confidence and speed and agility.  As with Josiah two years ago, David was ready; and once he got the right bike under him, he taught himself as easy as pie.  I'm so proud of him!!

There's a peace and joy that settles on the soul at the end of such a day.  As the children sleep contentedly in their beds and the cool night air drifts in the open windows, it's enjoyable to think back over the moments that made up this day in our simple country life.  At the end of my reflections, I conclude that, on the one hand, today was ordinary.

On the other hand, it was anything but!