Blessed Contentment

    Today I feel a deep sense of contentment and joy. I love this weather, I love having my family home together. Watching Dean as he goes about his work, stopping to lift Lia up so she can walk on the ceiling and making wooden hay bales for Joseph, between jobs. Watching Tristan mow the yard and cheerfully haul the trash, even though it is a job he despises. Listening to Kiana as she plays with her doll house. Her people imitate the life she lives, working, playing and fighting included. Enjoying freshly made tea, that Lia declares is "thumbs up." Fresh garden salads, the strawberry plant named "Tristan" that our neighbor bought for him. It is an ever bearing variety and the label says you can now have fresh berries for breakfast every day. The deep blue sky, birds singing, flowers blooming....I love it all.
   A sense of melancholy joins the contentment I feel deep inside. So soon these days will be gone and my children will no longer be small. There won't be any small, muddy boots lying on my clean kitchen floor, alongside a jacket that the little miss shrugged off when she came inside. No, quiet nap times where the older children curl up with books while the rest of us sleep. A wooden hay bale will no longer be able to make Joseph feel loved and cared for. There will be bigger hurts pressing upon their hearts. I won't be called from my work to see the egg Mrs. Hen laid....or the egg white smeared in a pocket because the egg met an early demise. Kiana won't be as thrilled to have a dress that matches mom's. Tristan is going to 6th grade in the fall, what happened? I remember when I was in 6th grade, I thought I was pretty near grown up!
  Since the future is unknown, I have chosen to delight in today and the blessings God has bestowed upon me. I will cherish the moments because I distinctly remember the time when I had three babies in diapers, I thought they would never grow up. Then one day the diapers, bottles and baby toys were put away and they were demanding toddlers who fought and screamed at each other one moment and were best friends the next. That stage was even more difficult than the baby stage but it to passed and they were busy preschoolers who kept me running to stay ahead of them. Then Braden started Kindergarten and Kiana and Joseph followed on his heels, by entering kindergarten the next year. Now Braden is no longer here at home and Kiana and Joseph are going to be going to second grade in the fall. Lia isn't a baby and I am no longer tied down at home. I revel in the freedom but am I really ready for this stage in life? Ready or not it is here and I know I must savor it or it to will be gone. So for today I am thankful God has led us thus far and blessed us abundantly more than we could have ever asked.