Lucky

"Mommy, mommy, look! It's a miracle.  Look what grew overnight!"  Eli and Walker were thrilled to discover the gift of clover covering natural areas of our backyard.  They rushed inside to bring the rest of us outside to share in the joy.

Last Saturday we had the first rain since our move in May.  All the weeds in the backyard took a nice long drink and have exploded.

I mean really the field of clover is just rampant weeds, but that isn't how the boys saw it.  I could feel the excitement in their voices.



"They are all tiny hearts," one says with a sideways smile.

"Our mission is to find a four leafed clover.  It's a big job," another one leads us in our afternoon task.

We did not find any four leafed clovers, but the searching was fun.  And Eli ripped off one leaf, two leaves each with two sections remained and declared he had made a four leafed clover. The literal loving Walker wouldn't buy it, but let Eli make his own solution to the searching.

Our days and nights have been a bit "weed filled" lately.  Baby girl is a bit more needy at night; the source of which seems to be a moving target.

The four year old is going through a bit of a shocking learning time; and his behavior has suffered.

School is only getting more intense and demanding, but we are learning so that is a good thing.

Yesterday was no exception, when I walked out of the nursery after getting Baby Girl down for her much needed morning nap, I was greeted with, "I made a bad choice," and a four year old covered in glue.

And then there were request (demands?) for the second, third and fourth breakfast.  Always, so hungry these boys.

There was no traction - no marking things off my lists.

Then writing was done and outside time had come - and the "miracle" was discovered. So much joy and interest from the unexpected and the unplanned for; the things growing in the wrong place.

Oh, how these are our moments.  The greatest joy and love comes in these times beyond my plan or my needs or my expectations.

And I realize how much I need to take the time to write these things out, even through the tired and the busy because I need for all of me to know and remember.



Also, another obsession: backyard caterpillars.

{We researched and asked many friends to help identify our little buddies. For a while the boys were convinced they had discovered a new species, but we had one dear friend who knew what these were. So here is a webworm and apparently in about a month we will be overrun with white moths (and some of us couldn't be more excited).}