Roswell Mill

 We were feeling cooped up. Trapped in a house by tired bodies from busy schedules and cold, gray skies. We decided to act and piled in the van and headed to our happy place. The color of the sky didn't matter. The naked, barren trees didn't matter. What mattered was the fresh air filling our lungs and just being together, all six of us, in the same place at the same time. The girls drew maps in the sand with sticks. We littered the trail with peanut shells as we walked, like we were a lesser-known, Southern version of Hansel and Gretel. We imagined the lucky squirrels that would happen upon the occasional peanut that jumped from our grasp before it could make its way to our hungry mouths. We watched water glide as smooth as glass before it rushed and crashed over falls. We ran and we dawdled. We hushed and we hollered. We spent this first day of this New Year doing what we hope fills up many more days over the coming days, weeks and months. Enjoying life's simple pleasures. Together.

The covered bridge the girls love to race across.

Maryn whittling with the new pocketknife Santa brought her.

Lauryn leading the pack.

Lulu swears she saw a fish go over the waterfall!

Project 365 {2013} - Day 270

Justin, Devy and I had to sneak in a walk and soak up some of this beautiful sunshine before the big girls got home from school. I think Devy liked flying solo with Mom and Dad!

Bath Buddies

 Lauryn and Devyn being bath buddies!

Monday, Mondays....I started working one or two days a week back at Dr. Taylor's office about a month ago. I started with Dr. Taylor, who is a pediatric dentist who also does orthodontics, when Justin and I first moved to Georgia back in 2000. When Maryn was born in 2003, as much as I loved everyone there, I quit to stay at home with her. Now nine years and three more babies later I am back! It's been a nice, little outlet for me and keeps my brain cells firing. But waking up at 5:00 a.m. and not getting home until about 6:45 p.m. on Mondays makes for a long day.

So I was grateful to be able to come home and give my Littles their bath before bed tonight and watch them play. It's so strange, it doesn't seem like that long ago that it was Maryn and Brynna singing and playing in the tub. Now they can run their long-legged selves to the shower and do their own thing. But my Littles, they still love a good hair-washing from Momma and relished giggling as they saw how ticked off they could get me with their splashing. I am ready to freeze these two. Because if the passage of time with their sisters has taught me anything, it's that these little, squeezable years fly by way too quickly.

Fall Is In The Air

     The air that has hung over Georgia as a result of Hurricane Isaac has been warm and thick. Clouds loomed from horizon to horizon like a playground bully loving to see it's victims squirm and sweat under their oppression. But this morning some force of nature pushed Isaac and his unwelcome presence out and we were greeted with a crisp 58 degree morning with an endless view of blue sky. I cooked up a big pot of oatmeal with apples I picked myself from a North Georgia orchard this week, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and butter.

     The girls cozied up to their warm bowls of goodness as they exclaimed "Mom! This tastes just like Fall!" They then started in, going back and forth, about their favorite things that were inspired by cooler weather. Pumpkin patches, Halloween, warm wassail laced with cinnamon, orange and cloves. They drooled at the thought of chocolate chip pumpkin bread and eating breakfast wrapped in a blanket. The turning of leaves and the hope that winter would bring snow. All things I love so much myself.

     I've often wondered what it is about Fall that captures my heart. Spring has blooms and new life. Summer, warmth and carefree days. Winter, the anticipation of the holidays and all the wonder that goes with it. But Fall....there is something about it that I love so much. Maybe it's that with the turning of the seasons, as leaves change from who they were, we see that there is beauty in that transformation. And maybe I like the idea that that change can be reflected in our own lives. That time may change us and challenge us, but it doesn't have to diminish us. That our beauty, inside and out, can become more vibrant than ever with each turning season of our life.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day y'all! The Young Crew had a great, albeit busy, day! It started with hugs and loves and Justin giving Valentines to all five of the gals in his life. The girls love each getting their own card from Dad each year and having him tell them why he loves them. It always produces the happiest smiles that early in the morning every year!

The older two girls rushed off to school after cards were opened. I sneakily did a Valentine theme in their lunches. (Heart shaped sandwiches, red apples, red-boxed raisins, red-wrapped Babybel cheese, banana-nut muffin baked in a pink polka-dot wrapper, a Rice Krispie treat with red and pink sprinkles, pink napkin, and a red love note that said "I LOVE YOU NUGGET!" with a Hershey's Nugget on it.) The girls told me they loved their surprise when they opened up their lunchboxes!

I went and helped out with Lauryn's class party this morning and had fun watching her and her buddies eat their snacks (it was more like a feast...I think all the grown-ups wanted to steal their kid's plates...I know I did!), do their craft and read a special Valentine story. I just love Lauryn's little school and was happy for the chance to be there with her!

(I wish I would have taken more pictures today! At least I caught a couple at Lauryn's class party...)

After Preschool I met up with the gals that I Visiting Teach for lunch. We hung out and chatted until the kids started getting too squirrely to sit any longer! Then it was off to run errands, pick up the older girls, homework, dinner, bedtime, you know, the nightly routine.

It was a simple and not particularly commercial Valentine's Day in the Young household. No dinners out, or dozens of roses, or any of that. But truthfully, I think it was perfect exactly the way it was. Surrounded by those that I love the most, soaking in the little moments that make life matter! It was a lovely day indeed!