Life.Planted.

Dear Daughter,   Time is such a thief.  Yesterday you were 12. Today you turn 13.  Saying goodbye to your childhood. Officially becoming a teenager. Undeniably no longer a little kid, as much as I want to hold onto your childhood.  You traded in your doll brushes for make up brushes. Dresses and bows for ripped jeans and scrunches.  Sparkly slip on shoes for tie up vans and converse. Coloring books for a cell phone.  I knew this day was coming. I knew the past year it was coming.  I knew the past month and week, that this day would come and I would never be able to stop it. But here we are and it still feels crazy to me. Weren't I just swaddling you up so gently, holding you close in my arms and bringing you home? My heart full of a love I've never experienced before.  I'd take in all your beautiful little features then, now I take in all your beautiful grown features.  My first born.  The one who made me a mama.  The one who taught...

I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner. bath. books. bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.  ~Anna Quindlen 

 “We all have slow days, off days, days we feel tired or uninspired, but they are nothing to concern yourself with. Like the ocean, the stillness is just another of our natural states. Soon, the winds will return, the waves will rise, and your imagination will flow freely again.”  ~beau taplin    The last week has been full of unmotivation and uninspired. The slow and off days. The cold, heavy, windy days of spring. But yet, still a busy week full of sports and events. Spring is slow and cold this year and refusing to speed up faster than she wants to. If the cold wind isn’t blowing, it’s raining. With warm sunny days far and few in between. The beginning of long, hot summer days nowhere in sight.  But the grass is growing tall as it should and buds burst on the tree limbs as they were meant to. Birds sing their song and I soak up the sunshine on the porch with a book in hand when I get the chance to. The days still go on. We occupy ourselves with play rehearsal...