Area of respite

I'm blogging from my gadgetydoo right now-- a test run. We'll see how it goes. All of these photos were taken with and edited on said gadgetydoo so again, we will see how it goes.

In honor of our first day as free beings (if you're not with me on Instagram, we got a second car! we're no longer to be total homebodies four or more days a week! Exciting news) we checked out someplace new...

I've passed by this bridge so many times but never bothered to stop until today. You get there from a picnic/rest area on route 7 in lanesborough, so close to my gram's that it's both ridiculous and the reason I've never had reason to rest there I guess. It's a nice little road through huge trees to a little footbridge over a creek. The perfect mini adventure for three mini people and their mama. A respite from the usual, if you will. And it's good to remember, because I can tend to forget, that a respite from the usual is good for body and soul.

Maisy Lou, we call her adventure baby because, well I'm sure you've gotten the gist of it by now. She wanted to crawl across the bridge, back and forth again and again, giving me a heart attack a minute. I tried to keep my feet astride her in case of a sudden lunge but it didn't much matter; she knew what she was doing. She loves to explore a new place just as much as the boys. And almost as much as I do.

Area of respite for the win. G'nite.

--Angie.

how motherhood changes us

Why are children such a blessing?

Because their little laughs and tiny voices and sweet faces fill our homes with so much joy.

Because their cries and constant needs teach us compassion and selflessness.

Because their mirroring personalities encourage us to become better versions of ourselves.

Because their love for each other, and our love for them, give us a greater understanding of God's love for us.

Our nieces and nephews, they change us, because they give us the first glimpse of parental love. Our hearts swell with pride as we feel we would do anything for these little people who are at once living ghosts of our own childhoods and bright shining hopes for our futures. We love them more than we've loved anything before.

And then... our firstborn children, they change us in a way that, even after all of the warnings, we never saw coming, because they fill our hearts with a different love we didn't know before and our hearts literally (ok not literally but in the most real spiritual sense) explode. And our one little child is the most precious gem in the universe and we can't imagine ever loving anything else that much.

And then... our second children, they change us by making us realize that yes, we can love something (someone) else that much. That lo and behold, although it seemed impossible, there is room in our hearts for another. That maybe there isn't just one most precious gem in the universe after all.

And then... our third children, they change us in perhaps the most meaningful way of all, because they make us see that all children are the most precious gem in the universe. They all matter, they are all unique and special and irreplaceable children of God. Every single one. Not just ours, but yours and theirs.

I am so thankful for this motherhood and how it's changing me. Happy mother's day to all you mamas, wherever you are on your motherhood journey.

xo, a.