The in-between

I recently told Jon (and was reminded by another blog I read the other day) that just because I sometimes complain about feeling like a constant slave to my children some days (amen?), it doesn't actually mean I don't love or am not passionate about staying at home with my kids.  It may seem that I'm saying I don't like what I do, but that's not what I'm saying at all.  Confusing, right?  Daily there are hard times, but it's the in between times - in between the hard work, laundry, discipline, cooking, seemingly constant sickness, and refereeing fights.  It's the moments in between where I hear lessons I've worked hard to ingrain in their minds shine through in the words my kids speak to each other.   Or in the laughter that occurs while I work side by side with them to clean up their tornado strewn rooms.  Or every once in a while one of them tells me how much they love dinner that night and I'm thankful for the hard work it may have taken to make that meal knowing I did it for them.  It's because of those tough moments that my joy flows from down deep.

Here are some of the in between in our lives this past week:

Valentines day came and went with homemade Valentines, a dinner picnic in the living room, and A Dolphin Tale (Emerson had just finished reading the book, so we rented the movie).



Emerson's class recited two poems in front of the school.  She, of course, did great.


(I'm not sure if the above image will work, but I think if you click on it you will be able to see a video of the recitation!)

I finally brought my camera to gymnastics practice (it's so dark in there and I'm so far away from the action) and caught a few sweet moves (check out the air between Emerson and that balance beam!).



And lots of silly moments, too.









And the Friday Phone Pics!  (All of these are on Instagram.  If you are, too, my user name is sandra_kelly).




I hope you had a good week, as well, filled with some of that in-between stuff!  Have a fantastic weekend!