52 Weeks of 2014 - Week 13

As I look back on our last few years, there are many things I could focus on. We made the choice after our first child, our son was born, for me to stop my job outside the home and be with our children. To be honest, I didn't really feel like it was a choice to be made, I couldn't handle the thought of leaving them. I know people do; some feel they have no other option, some absolutely love their jobs and have worked hard to get where they are and I do not judge them, but I wanted, more than anything to be there for my kids.

I had some pretty great jobs, that I really enjoyed with people that I looked forward to seeing every day, but this...this job of being a mother has and is, by far the most important. We could financially be in a much stronger position if I had kept working, but we have three amazing, beautiful children, who deserved to be loved and taught by us. Who needed to know they were important and they were worth spending time with and being with.

There is school now and there are friends and they are starting to experience life, but I hope that basic values we have instilled, foundations we helped to build will remain strong. We will continue to sow into them as much as we can and encourage and inspire, but it is no longer just us influencing them.

I do not regret for one moment the sacrifices we have made. I would go back and do it all over again. This is the most important job in the whole world.

Eight

Ah my sweet girl, she turned eight today! This is a child who gets on and gets things done. When she sets her mind to something it is hard to make her change it. She is strong, yet incredibly delicate, still figuring out what life is all about. She loves hard. She does everything at the 100% level, no middle ground or halfheartedness for this one.

She is a sweet, yet sometimes tormenting sister. She is helpful and smart and beautiful. She works hard and plays hard and loves to laugh and have fun.

Sometimes I look at her and can see my mother as a child, she is my only child to give me that gift. My first daughter, we are learning much together and although the road has sometimes been a little rocky we will travel on.

I love her deeply and want only the best for her; to protect her for as long as possible, to encourage and challenge her, as she does me. We have fun years ahead.

52 Weeks of 2014 - Week 6

And then the rain came and it wasn't just a soft rain, it poured! The kind of weather that most definitely made me want to be indoors, wrapped up warm (wishing I had a fireplace). When you're a kid though, what could be more fun than to splash in puddles?

Ten

Ten years ago we welcomed the most amazing baby boy into our life. A decade...how is that even possible? I could not know how much I would love this little guy and how much he would change me. I had no idea what to really expect, how to be a mother...but we learned together. Such a sweet, sweet time.

He is truly beautiful, inside and out. He has a sensitivity, that I know at times must seem like both a blessing and a curse, but I know he will grow into that and will always bless others.

Like me, he sees things very literally and can be an over analyzer and like his daddy he is free with his emotions and wears his heart on his sleeve. He is creative, an amazing artist with a crazy imagination. Although they bug him at times and he craves alone time, he adores his little sisters and I know he would do anything for them.

He is on that cusp now, he is still very much a little boy, but growing all the time; intellectually, emotionally and physically. The small child is standing in the doorway, one foot in childhood still, but peering across into adulthood, he's not quite ready to cross that threshold but it is just a matter of time. It makes me catch my breath...