This morning I woke up at 8:30 in a house that held all six of my most favorite people in the world. The littles waited patiently for me to finish coffee and Lauds, after which I made pancakes and said yes to Nutella on top (though seriously, Stella, shall we review the importance of temperance?). We went to church together, all lined up in one pew. The two oldest boys are taller than both of us; Joe is taller than me but not Elwood. I didn't know, when they were small and Mass was a struggle, that I would be so happy to get them all back in one pew again.
After Mass Elwood ran to the grocery store for picnic supplies, while I whipped up chocolate pudding for the younger kids and mocha pudding for the older ones. (Mocha pudding = stir a splash of leftover coffee into the chocolate pudding.) I packed it up in the cooler and we all headed out into the sunshine.
After we picnicked Pete asked us to kick soccer balls toward his makeshift goal so he could practice defending it. We played a brief and breathless game of family ultimate frisbee, and Elwood headed out with Alex to return him to school.
After our goodbyes the rest of us made a Target run and a batch of Instant Pot potato-leek soup. My mother-in-law wanted to talk to me about a couple of things, and we chatted for a while as I was prepping dinner. She and my father-in-law were on the phone together, talking about their time with Joe last weekend. "You have done such a good job with those kids," she said, and he chimed in. "They are just so nice to be around."
This is not, you guys, a thing I would ever have thought I'd hear from them when I was in the trenches 10 and 15 years ago -- not in my wildest imaginings. If you are dealing with challenging toddlers just now, may I offer you a little smidgin of perspective? It really does get better, faster than you think it will in the moment.
Alex is gone, and Joe goes back tomorrow, and so I'm not sure when I will wake up again in a house with my six favorite people in it. But I'm really grateful for the chance to do it two days in a row. I'm really grateful for those six people.
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