Family Alive

Here are a couple pictures of active Analise while she was playing in the Romper Room at church one Wednesday evening. She’s quite the climber! She was playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa in the photo above, and below she was working hard to get over the rainbow arch.

Mother’s Day Musings

We celebrated my first official Mother’s Day this weekend. Life’s been really busy around our house lately… Brian’s wrapping up the semester, and he was gone Friday-Saturday for a bike race in Tennessee (more later!). We’ve been busy helping get the new church ready for the kick-off this past Sunday, so it’s seemed like life’s just been racing by and we’ve hardly had any time together as a family. Sunday was a somewhat quieter day, though. Brian’s grandma, his mom, Beverly, and his brother, Matthew, joined us for lunch at our house. It’s wonderful to share the blessing of our house with others! We had a great lunch, and Analise was her usual entertaining self. Brian went for a bike ride with a friend from church, and I got a free dinner from Maui Tacos when he came home.

Now you’re probably wondering…”If you’ve not spent much time together, why in the world would he go off biking on Mother’s Day?” I’ll admit, when he told me he was going riding on our way home from church, I was sharply disappointed. I’ve been really jealous for my husband’s time recently, probably mostly because… well, I don’t know:)… maybe because he’s my husband? He quickly realized I was unhappy, while I quickly realized that his guy times, especially with other guys from church, are as vital to him as time with me. He offered to not go, but we decided that we’d still have the evening together. He had a great ride, and though it seemed like just another afternoon at home with Analise and the house to take care of, I’m really glad he went.

While he was gone, I had some thoughts on being a mother. It really is a new identity that supercedes all your other identities. It’s a good thing, definitely. At times, I wish parenting could be more 50/50 (or even just closer to it!), but when it all comes down to it, mom will take care of it. I was up until 11:30 on Saturday night making all the lunch preparations for Sunday, cleaning up, etc. Brian had fallen asleep on the couch (notably, he’d ridden 100 miles and climbed 2 mountains on his bike, so it wasn’t laziness!). Sunday morning was crazy getting out the door for church, where I almost missed both services because no one came to relieve me in child care (I did manage to find a replacement and enjoyed the service immensely!). I think I changed all the diapers for the day. And finding myself at home on Mother’s Day afternoon, just another day hanging with my sweet girl and picking up the house was a bit of a bummer… but then I realized, “Hey – I get to be a mom. What a great gift!” Analise laughed at her Noah’s Ark animals, climbed all over me, giggled and drooled as we played on the floor and fell asleep curled up on my lap. I’m a mom. It’s only me who truly felt the pain of bringing her into this world, it’s me she reaches for when she’s tired, it’s me who knows exactly how to soothe her to sleep, and it’s her mom she’ll run to when she’s hurt. The good and the bad all come together to make it exactly what it is, and it’s worth it.

Ok, I think that’s enough deep thoughts for tonight. Thanks for hanging in… I’ll post Brian’s biking story tomorrow!