We went to the USTC community day egg hunt… my kids each got one egg due only to the generous spirit of other parents. It was a great event but the turn-out was vastly underestimated.
Today the kids and I went to Waterloo Gardens in Exton, and saw Teka the Macaw, and Lethal Weapon and Chester the miniature horses who live there. We also got mammoth sunflower seeds and starts for my herb garden, and a few more varietals of sunflower to go around our house. The kids helped us put the seeds in their small starter pots this afternoon in the sunshine and off we go. Spring is surely upon us.
Then I checked in with the weather channel and realized my plan for a trip to the zoo tomorrow is folly… rain and snow mixed does NOT a good time sound.
A very good friend of mine recently sent me a copy of “What Mothers Do (especially when it looks like nothing)” by Naomi Stadlen. I only wish I had received this book several years ago, but better a little late than never. Ms. Stadlen is a psychotherapist who interviewed hundreds of mothers on their experiences of motherhood, and the result is a book that actually talks about all of the things you aren’t supposed to talk about… like sleep deprived hallucinations during the first few months, loss of a sense of self, being on call 24/7 – literally, forever.
I recommend it highly and may write more about it when I am finished. But nothing has come as close (not even my own diary) to explaining how impossible it is to describe parenthood, how joyful and painful and endless and ultimate it is. I met a woman at a salon the other day who was mother to a 6 month old son, and she said, “no one ever told me how hard it was… I mean, you hear it, but I never had any idea.” My favorite quote from it so far is this:
“Having a baby – like dying- is one of the great transitions that we face for which there can be no rehearsal.”