Tuesday, March 4, 2008

What really matters

So I have something to say about how spinning bamboo is actually just as hard as spinning silk, and how I actually plan to finish the stripy sweater, and how I'm going out to knit night tonight if I have to bribe the children with movies and candy, but that's not very important right now.

Well, okay, it is important right now, as is the fact that I am seriously considering military boarding school for my middle two. It's a long story, and maybe I'll tell it in the future, but right now I'm sort of beside myself.

But what's more important right now is how much personal growth (military boarding school fantasies excepted) I've achieved in the last thirteen years. I could have gone on a pilgrimage to India, sat in contemplation at a Buddhist temple in Thailand, joined the Peace Corps, or walked the Appalachian trail.

Instead, I had children. And one special one started the entire journey:


Happy birthday, sweetheart. It's been a great ride so far. How do you feel about boarding school?

Oh, and just 'cause I can't resist -- here's how the walls turned out behind the candlelight. Since the light color didn't really cover the dark, I got an "I totally planned this" kind of two-tone look. We still have finishing work to do, of course.

8 comments:

Charity said...

I was talking with a friend recently about raising children, and bemoaning the fact that I hadn't finished school before I had kids. I realized, though, that it's kind of a blessing - I've grown and changed so much since becoming a mother, that what I see as a learning/career path now is totally different than I envisioned years ago. :0)

Happy Birthday to Thing 1!

Yarn It said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter!

I love your room - it is totally wild! You have to show us the entire room when complete.

bfmomma said...

Oh, yay! Happy Birthday, Thing 1 and welcome to the teen years, mama.

I totally remember her being born and how bizarre I thought you were at the time (in a good, awe-striking way).

Has it really been that long?

:)

allisonmariecat said...

Happy birthday, Thing 1!

Love the walls. I am unimaginative about such things, and would have been afraid of such a contrast-y combination, but it looks so lovely.

Pancake Goddess said...

happy birthday thing1! Happy mama anniversary, S.

suzee said...

Remember when you couldn't IMAGINE having two? Hee.

She is, truly, some of your best work. We feel blessed to know her, for many reasons. Just one: I love watching her, lately, out on the field, switching from elegant, athletic young woman to gangly girl child in an instant and back again.

Katherine said...

Happy belated birthday, Thing 1. Such a beautiful girl.

I getcha on the pilgrimage thing - this is not what I had imagined for myself, but I can't imagine a better place to be.

Can't wait to hear about the boarding school (military, no less).

Elizabeth said...

I'd forgotten, if I ever knew, that your oldest and mine share a birthday. Just one year apart! Happy Birthday, S!