Living a Full Life

Hello, October. That was an unexpected break…

When people ask me about the transition from one to two kids I always reply the same way, “Life felt completely full before. Now it’s just full with a different ratio of things.”

Since we began really homeschooling last month, this has been particularly true. Every moment is full. (With little time to blog!)

We recently said goodbye to the butterfly life cycle to focus instead on ‘leaves and seeds,’ a perfect theme for autumn, don’t you think?

We’re busy setting up our fall nature table, gathering leaves and seeds for art projects and identification, preparing for a leaf scavenger hunt, writing our own tree field guide, creating leaf symmetry math activities, and more.

Then add our other activities to the mix: dance class, homeschool class work (math, social studies, and language arts), abstract painting projects, cooking meals from scratch, chasing after a newly crawling baby who’s getting into everything, hosting friends and family visitors, acting out a kids adaptation of Twelfth Night, maxing out our library cards with mysteries like Harriet the Spy and grown-up books like How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, visiting friends who moved away, committing myself to a regular yoga practice and early morning runs, laundry, diaper changes, breastfeeding, play dates, birthday parties, life! The list goes on and on…

Yet I don’t feel particularly overwhelmed, just tired and joyful. Maybe it’s because we’re enjoying every activity, each moment during this busy time. Maybe it’s because I wanted this life so badly and it feels so right.

Sometimes I feel tempted to add caffeine to my diet to tackle that never-ending to-do list that is life, but instead I think we’ll just have a pajama day (when we need to do laundry) or eat popcorn for dinner (when I’m too tired to prepare food) and savor this precious time with my family because time is fleeting.

Every minute is full.

Nevertheless I’m going to try to blog more regularly because I have so much to share with you and want to continue to document our everyday life. This space and my friendships with you bring me such joy too.