Life in the Meantime

John Mark—our resident timekeeper— made a paper chain at the beginning of the month. One ring per day, counting down to the scheduled arrival of Decimus on 3/3. It was shockingly short, even for me.

Some pregnancies seem to linger for years, stretching across seasons and feeling somewhat interminable. We know they’re not; give or take, 40 weeks is the general expectation. The experience of those 40ish weeks, though, is so varied as to seem like a spectrum we travel on in either slow motion or fast forward. This pregnancy, like my last, has been of the incredibly brief variety.

So here we are on the cusp, prepared and waiting. All of the “must haves” have been gathered. The clothes have been washed and folded, the diapers prepped, the crib ready to be sidecarred this weekend. Our local community is eagerly on standby for whatever needs should arise. Now we wait… and live life in the meantime.

There are still Saturday hikes to be taken. And Pooh Sticks to be played.

And Momma/Daughter outings, like the one Birdie and I took to a local yarn shop. She’s become quite the knitter herself, and we scored three skeins of beautiful yarn from a massive clearance sale at 75%. She chose pink, of course. She cast on for a doll skirt last night. I’m saving mine for this fall. We’ve been hosting weekly sewing lessons with dear friends and this has been another added boost to our girly time…. even when the boys join us as they did this week!

There’s the constant ebb and flow of outdoor play. We’ve had sun, and warmth. And rain, and cold. It’s been somewhat dizzying. One day I send out kids in snow pants and mittens and know I’ll be washing two loads of muddy gear come evening, and other days I’m fussing at Simon to wear a shirt and not leave his boots in the back field again as he strips in the sunshine.

Music lessons are, of course, a steady part of life. John Mark got a full-sized cello recently, and he’s adjusting to the new size and richer sound. Simon has hit a good stride in his musical development, suddenly able to recreate favorite pieces without written music. One of the first songs he figured out solo was a CC history song about the Louisiana Purchase. Birdie is wading deeper into Suzuki book 4. She loves the concerto pieces, but will still tell you that fiddle music is by far the most fun to play.

And school is, naturally, part of the daily rhythm. Phineas had a major skill regression last week. It’s an expected part of his learning at this point, but still hurts my heart. Thankfully, he barely notices when we start over from scratch. We simply go back to the beginning, at home and in therapy, and roll our sleeves up to the task ahead. The other kids are forging onward. Simon is in the last half of 3rd grade math, and enjoying that. John Mark and Birdie are looking forward to their Faces of History projects for CC. He has chosen physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and she picked Grace York, wife of Sgt. Alvin C. York. Jude has been working on the volcano Mamaw and Papaw sent him for Christmas, and is loving making up his own math games. On of my goals this weekend is to lay out a six week plan for school that will be easily attainable even after Decimus arrives. I’m thinking of gathering up a couple of extra read-alouds as back up. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

So, life as normal. With a twist. Waiting, but living. This is the theme for the next few weeks, until that amazing moment when everything changes… and stays the same, just with the addition of a new person.