I texted my best friend yesterday: “If you have ever wanted to completely exhaust five small kids and one golden retriever at the end of every day, I know how to do it.”
And I do.
Early wake-up calls from the Post Office saying that your order of chicks have arrived is a good way to start.
After you’ve recovered from the cuteness and gotten the little flock-in-the-making settled, let the day wash over you. There will be work. Lots of it–the kind that leaves you aching and dog-tired by the time the sun goes down.
But there will be plenty of time for playing, too. The kind that gets you just as tired, and just as dirty … but oh, the memories of it all.
Every single day has been full to bursting with a toddler intent on going barefoot (which has never bothered me until I had a barn floor scattered with rusty nails to worry about), kids running through grass and watching baby birds take flight, prepping raised beds that will eventually hold strawberries (but will serve for some fall lettuces and spinach this year), hanging line upon line of clean clothes out to dry, and simply working our way into this new life that will some day feel as comfortable as a worn quilt but today is new and glorious and tiring in ways we never could have imagined.
I’m sure some day, I’ll grit my teeth over the nightly baths that leave a gritty ring around the tub, or realizing that my 16 year-old went through three (three!) t-shirts in less than twelve hours thanks to heavy work in the summer sun. But I hope not. I pray that I am always as grateful for this gift as I am today, falling into bed exhausted, and knowing that tomorrow, we get to do it all again.
Awesomeness;)