"You have a lively family"

This is the last week before school starts. My patience has ebbed and flowed all summer long. We have had fun and it has been great but I'm mentally wiped out from trying to balance working from home (the hard part), entertaining the kids (the easy part), scheduling my mother's helper (pure bliss) and watching over and carting around my other child who I never really talk about on my blog, Grandpa (no comment).

I took Grandpa to his eye exam this morning, and the kids and I shopped for groceries while Grandpa was getting his new glasses. Although they were not being totally terrible, my almost first grader and almost second grader acted like a bunch of nuts with no self-control. I found myself taking deep breaths and wishing that I was shopping alone. They were really pissing me off.

Then I thought about what today is. It was on this day three years ago that Skylar was born. All of a sudden, I felt my patience return. How selfish of me to wish that I was shopping alone when there are moms and dads out there whose babies/children were never given the chance to drive their parents crazy in a grocery store, or anywhere else for that matter. All of a sudden, my silly children's behavior was not such an issue after all. Pretty interesting how the memory of our sweet Skylar and all of the babies whose lives were cut drastically short changed my view and lowered my stress level in an instant.

August 30th will never pass by without causing serious reflection on lessons learned, love shared and hope realized...that tiny miracle who overcome so may obstacles in her short five weeks of life still working her way into our thoughts in the most unexpected ways. She just saved her Aunt Evyn and Uncle Reed from an afternoon of solitude in their rooms.