It’s a cold but sunny Saturday morning and the house is quiet.

Bryant is currently in Greece with his uncle and cousin, sending us (too few) pictures and making us all wish we were there too. Tillie is off on a shopping day with her cousin. Dan and Andre went to pick up some baby pigs and since they were going through town, decided to splurge and get breakfast–I’m imagining at A&W. And Liesl is still sleeping. I saw the light on in her room after midnight last night. She probably read late.
It’s a weird and different phase of life these days. Our baby is a teenager tomorrow. I just spent time finding pictures to do a social media post for her tomorrow. This year I’m trying to do a short post with just 5 pictures and 5 words that describe each child. Often I don’t bother with birthday posts. With six children, it would be overwhelming if I mentioned every one of them every year.
But I found 22 pictures that I sentimentally saved, so I’ll have to pare them down.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the tiny yellow crocs?

These are good days. There are lots of quiet moments to think and there are people to hang out with if I’m craving conversation. Our kids are intuitive and witty and opinionated. They’re great company. We also spend lots of time staring at our respective screens, in case you think all is family and fellowship around here.
Natalia and Liesl are deep cleaning the kitchen for me. Natalia is a slave driver.
“Have you used this since I cleaned last?!”
“Can I please throw away these rags?”
“Let’s put the glasses in a more efficient spot.”
“Mom, it’s chipped. Do you really think we’ll want to use it in the cabin someday?”
And so on.
She is very good for me and I marvel that I gave birth to a daughter who is so organized.
If yours isn’t/aren’t like this, that’s ok! Liesl has a totally different personality and will likely never do things like Natalia does. And I’m sure your daughters shine in other ways. I could list Tillie’s faults too. But this isn’t the time or place.
It should be a fun day. We cleaned the house yesterday, so today we can bake, make tortillas for a birthday dinner, dig in the dirt, repot some plants, paint cards, etc. And I MUST wash the kitchen windows.
To all of you moms with small ones, I want to say all the cliche things like take time for your babies and enjoy them while they’re little and these days go by so fast.

But what I really want to say is: choose to embrace every stage with your families. They are worth everything you pour into them.
Happy Saturday!
~Luci