Rain

It feels rather like the sun will never shine again, here in Cleveland Heights.  It's really only been about 3 days of 45-degree drizzle, but combined with a sick boy, thwarted plans, and an simply overwhelming amount of schoolwork hanging over my head-- it's been a dreary weekend indeed.

I've been struggling, this weekend, with that fine art of appreciating all the moments of my life.  It's been hard to filter out the good in a whining 5 year old, a two year old experimenting with scowling, fleeting weekend days whiling away in a blur of cleaning up tissues and the detritus of a family trapped inside.

It was there, though.  In a half hour snuggling my boy as we read poem after poem from my Childcraft books.  In a little girl's giggles and the cadence of her voice.  In snuggly lazy mornings nursing my girl in bed.  In costumed little ones dancing to a bluegrass band.  In a house cozy with steam and good smells from a pot of fejouada on the stove all day.

It was there. 

And looking back on the weekend, maybe I should choose to remember those moments over the others, the discontent of expectations versus disappointments, the chaos of an overcrowded mall, venting my frustration onto my family, the guilt at feeling frustrated with little ones who weren't trying to frustrate me at all.

But, those moments are life too.  If life is good, by definition they must be good, too, right?

Yes.  Good for helping me to appreciate the sun, when it does peek out, all the more.

Here's to some sunshine, soon.

 In the meantime, here are our (sick, overtired) children at the Bootanical Bash last night.  We're not about to let a feverish child stand in the way of a family tradition!  At least not one we've paid for in advance!

Some Halloween portraits:

The sick ninja

The fairy.  She LOVED getting makeup on...

In the dark of the garden.  The decorations are so wonderful.  Ghosts and scarecrows and spider webs everywhere and so well done.  Jack loved everything.  Ivy was rather scared of the ghosts and ghouls but did much better once we explained that they were pretend.  "oh!" she'd say pleasantly. We had to repeat this ritual by every. single. scary thing. She is so cute.

The disintegration of a costume by the end of the evening..

Little finger puppet bats that were one of the highlights of the evening for the kids.  Kids are weird.