A Trail Mix Family: Surprise!

Have you ever had one of those moments that just caught you off guard and you find yourself sitting in a puddle of tears? Okay....maybe not a puddle, but certainly tears trickling down your cheek. Steadily. For 10-15 minutes. Well, that's me right now. Yeah, yeah, I know. "Real men don't cry." Bunk! I've spent the last few minutes of nap time looking through old pictures of our family, our kids, us and am being flooded with memories, thoughts and emotions of the last several years. It's been a long time since Mrs. S has posted anything new and like many other well intentioned husbands, I originally supported the capturing of life's moments via blog. "Sure, babe....I'll write a few posts too." Ha! That half-hearted gesture to support what was new and exciting at that moment never came to fruition. So here I am looking back at the pictures and posting Mrs. S shared over a roughly 2 year period of time and I'm wishing that I had been more active in the process. You should know that I'm not one to sit down and spend time writing blogs or other such things, so this is BIG for me. : )

We recently took an early anniversary trip (the BIG 10th) in Coshocton thanks to mom and dad. As we moseyed through the quaint old-timey stores and their knick-knacks, one quote just kept showing up.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." - Robt. Brault

I just haven't been able to let this go and looking back through pictures of our children, slightly smaller mind you, just continues to hammer this point home.

I can't say that I've ever been disengaged from our family....at least that I am aware of, but I can point out periods of time, days and moments where I haven't been fully engaged, supportive, involved, etc. There's a bit of a melancholy feeling that I haven't experienced often yet my mind drifts to thoughts of "what would things would be like if..."questions. I love my wife and my children, but as a parent I suppose I'm experiencing one of those moments of regret mixed with nostalgia.

They really do grow up quickly you know. Children. Point in case:

My sweet little Pea is 6 now. I remember that "O.S." moment when Mrs. S told me she was pregnant. Then bringing home this beautiful baby girl from the hospital that I had no idea what to do with. *Que tears....again* Now, she is an amazing little girl (big in her estimation) who is strong, loving and nurturing, but not too big come crawl into daddy's lap and cuddle (Thank You God!).

Grunt, well....he has been going full steam ahead since birth. What a change from our sweet and timid Pea! This kid never crawled the traditional way. He bear crawled, moved straight to running and hasn't looked back since. Ok, that's figurative. He looks backward all of the time while running and that typically doesn't end well. : ) He's our clumsy puppy that is more the size of a moose with a heart just as big. He's almost 4 and is learning to ride his big boy bike in between demonstrations of how we can pump his legs to make his swing go.

Our youngest, Munchie, is now 2 and a little bit. Imagine Grunt with Pea's body shape, except more fearless. There. You've got Munchie. He wants so badly to be big like Pea and Grunt, but wants nothing more than "B" and mommy. He's a persistent little scrapper (read: our only hitter and hair-puller) and sweet as can be. I'm not sure that those always go together, but somehow he is both.

In the interest of catching up, God had blessed me with a job much closer to home that starts tomorrow. I know that God has a plan for each season in our lives and while I don't know why he allowed me to work an hour away from home for the past 2 1/2 years, I'm convinced it was at least partly to bring me to today (and other times like it). I am fortunate to have a patient, supportive and loving wife who is willing to experience life together with me. Why she chose me, I'm not always sure, but I'm thankful. I have been blessed even further by her in sharing our three little blessings (Pea, Grunt and Munchie). These three are amazing little people to come home to. No matter how my day has been they can always make me smile by running to the door and yelling "Daddy" with their arms wide open. Mrs. S stays home with our babies to care for them, nurture them and teach them. Yes....she homeschools Pea and soon to be Grunt. How she does it all and keeps it together I'll never know, but she does it with more grace than she will ever know. Oh...did I mention she still has to deal with me day in and day out to top it all off? I'm not sure that's something I would do, but I'm certainly grateful that she does. So many wonderful things are happening and God has blessed us in such amazing ways over the past few years. I can't wait to see what all He has in store for us.