Thinking of

SPRING

with great longing these days.

This long long winter and many many hours indoors in this little house are wearing on all of us.

Turtle is whiny and bored and has many "fits" a day. Rosebud is madly jealous of Sunshine and therefore spends all her time destroying things, antagonizing Turtle and trying her darndest to hurt Sunshine through any method possible -- squeezing, biting, poking, smothering, etc. Mommy is overwhelmed, hormonal and impatient. Sunshine, dear little Sunshine lives up to her name by being the sweetest, most patient and adorable little blessing, but somedays I wonder if the rest of us are missing her loveliness because we are too wrapped up in being completely at at odds with each other.

It's hard not to feel like a failure as a mother in these last interminable days of winter as I stumble through the day (in my pajamas half the time) striving to get everybody fed and clothed and bathed and read to and hugged and wondering if their frustrating behavior is because of me. Because I'm stretched thin and despite the long long hours in the day, I can't manage to give them the attention or the love, or the consistent patient discipline that they need (not to mention keep them entertained and out of trouble).
I guess this time of weariness and cold, this desire for warmth and newness is all part of an authentically Lenten experience :) but, my goodness, isn't Lent long then?
We're waiting on your Resurrection, Lord . . . and the cherry blossoms!