I got a very nice card in the mail from Marie a couple of weeks ago. She mentioned how she had just found and read my 52 Blessings posts. One of the nicest notes I've received all year. I love good Canadian mail.

I got this note from Caleb on Mother's Day.

I loved the "marvelous" and the "magnificent," but was a bit concerned about the "occupied." It reminded me of my word of the year and my goal to "embrace the entropy so that I can embrace my children more." Apparently I need to refocus.

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.” Anna Quindlen (Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

Note to self: I am tired of making this mistake.

An aside for Kelly:

It just started raining.

When I pointed this out to Ethan, he said, "That's impossible!"