Clarity...

Have you ever been driving and look out the window and all of the sudden have a rare moment of clarity? Not a moment where all that ails is fixed, but a moment that is just peaceful.

It snowed here yesterday and it was one of those snows that coats the roads, trees and well just about everything. I had dropped Sophia off to preschool this morning and was leaving to go to Target to pick up a few things. I was driving down the road and for some reason I just sort of looked around me. It was beautiful. The sun was shinning and there was still snow in the trees. I thought to myself that it seemed peaceful, so I turned off the radio and made the rest of my journey in just the quietness of my car with the only sound being the hum of my engine. I really wanted to stop right in the middle of the road, roll down the windows and turn off the engine so that I could be a part of the peace that I was witnessing. It made me smile.

Often I find myself overlooking these moments, maybe I am too busy, maybe I am just ignorant, I don't know. It made me realize that clarity can come in many forms and that I need to enjoy it when it happens. I need to stop worrying about every little thing that comes along and be a good example to my kids. I need to help them understand the beauty in every day things and make them take the time to appreciate them.

I have been complaining about the snow and ice, but today I realized that there was something good in it after all. I guess it is sort of like when you have that one rain during the spring, you know the one, it is a warm day and you are upset that it is raining, but when the rain stops you realize that the grass has suddenly turned green. It is if Spring has sprung right before your eyes. These are both lessons for me to understand that I need to take the good with the bad.

Here's hoping that you find our own personal moment of clarity.

Family...

Sophia is, as I have said, very good to her little brother. I hope that she will stay that way, but I know that like everything else, people change. I put this picture up of the kids, so that you guys could see her beautiful eyes. She gets compliments on them quite a bit. Nicholas, I think, will have my eye color, which is hazel. Sophia's really are hazel too, but instead of changing between brown and green, hers change between blue and green. My husband's eyes are the same. Eyes are one thing that I always notice about people. I have been known, under the influence, to tell people how much I like their eyes. I love to see somebody with dark hair and blue eyes. The dark hair makes their eyes stand out. Our eyes are precious and we should be thankful for them every day.

I have been thinking about my grandmother's quite a bit recently. My father's mother's birthday would have been February 24 and she would have been 79. My mother's mother's birthday would have been March 2 and she would have been 90. I have not posted here in awhile, because I have been working on a few projects related to my grandmothers.

First, just a bit of info about myself. I was adopted by my stepfather when I was 4 or 5 years old and never grew up knowing my real father's mother. When I was 14 we reconnected and by the time my grandmother passed away March 17, 2000, we were very close. I felt that we had lost a good bit of time together, but managed to make up for it. I know that my grandmother was very sad about not being able to watch me grow up. In 1994 I gave my grandmother this little book called "Grandma, Tell Me Your Memories...". Basically there was a page for each day of the year and each day had a question about my grandmother's life. At the end of 1994 she gave it back to me filled with her answers. The one project I am working on is to take her handwritten information and type it, so that I can share with others. I am only up to March 9. Sometimes, it is hard to write, because I think about her being gone. I wanted to have it done by now, but with the kids, it is a near impossible task at times.

The second thing I am working on has to do with both Grandmothers and my Grandfathers and all my family who came before me. I am working on tracing my genealogy. This is not an easy task either. I work on this sometimes after both kids have gone to sleep at night. It is interesting to see what people did (in my case, most were farmers), to see how big their families were and to see what they were worth.

Both of these projects may take me a while to finish (the genealogy will probably never be done), but it helps me to use my brain. Sometimes, I feel like my brain has turned to mush, that is one bad thing about being a stay at home mom. Even though I get around other people, we have a tendency to talk about our kids and nothing too heavy or thoughtful, so these are both good tasks to give my brain a little workout.

I have not been as lazy as it seems then. I look at everybody's blog just about every day. Well that it about it for now. I will leave you with a little picture of my ever growing boy. Happiness to you all.