I’m feeling quiet lately and I’ve chosen to honor that feeling over the last week or so, hence my lack of posting here. I’m finding that the need to draw apart and go within is not easy to balance with living with and caring for 3 energetic young boys.

Our Thanksgiving was nice; the same sort of quiet and simple at home celebration that we usually do.

Some things that I am thankful for these days:

~Sleep. A rare and precious commodity around here over the years and one that I suspect will be rarer still before long. It’s all that I really want to do these days. Certainly not all that I am doing, but all that I want to do.

~Having the whole family finally up here, including Constance that cat, a.k.a. spissers.

~Breath. Being able to bring it in with relative ease. Let me never forget the blessing and miracle of that simple act alone.

~A toddler who asks to be cuddled

~A great big boy, now less then a head shorter then his Mama

~A middle-ish boy, all full of song

~The return of winter birds to our feeders

~Warm fires to sit by

~Creativity and will enough to get us through tough times

~My Grandmother’s Scottish Shortbread, with my own fingers doing the kneading and fluting the edges, just as her’s did for so many years.

~Watching a snow shower. After all the years of my life, I am still mesmerized, every single time. I hope there will be snow the day our baby is born. This will be my third winter baby, but it was never actively snowing when any of them were born. It did, however, snow three days after the birth of my spring baby!

~The bitter-sweetness of these last few weeks…the aches and pains, kicks and squirms, hope and fear, and over-whelming sense of anticipation. I’m glad that I’ve managed to keep my discomfort to a minimum and that it’s only now that it’s really starting to slow me down. I’m grateful to know that this may well be my last chance at this. That I have this chance at all and that I know to take my time and savor it, not wish it away for convenience sake. I wish I could find a way to bottle it, to hold on to it in someway, so that I can come back in years to come and visit for a while. At the same time, I’m thankful to be able to welcome this baby in peace and joy.