Seasons

I really enjoy the change of seasons. While I have a favorite season (spring), I have learned to appreciate all the special things that are unique to each season.  Easter and Passover, gardening, longer days, and the gradual awakening of the plants and animals are what I look forward to most in spring. Summer brings pool days, 4th of July fireworks, cicadas singing, and garden harvest. We look forward to fabulously cooler days, the approach of Thanksgiving, and occasionally some fall colors when autumn mercifully comes around. Winter always holds the hope of a possible snow event, big pots of soup, December and the joy that Christmas brings, and the beginning of a new year.

 Each season has its own joys.

Each season also has its share of less than pleasant aspects of life.

Spring (I'm reaching here...there isn't much not to like about spring) means it's time to get back to yard maintenance and boy, it's hard to focus on getting much work done when those gorgeous days are calling you outside. Summer (I'll limit my complaints) means it's time to melt for 5 months straight, cabin fever, and mosquitoes. With fall (again, reaching!), it's time to clean out the garden and it's the beginning of "sick season." Winter will bring the continuation of "sick season", a little bit of cabin fever during our two weeks of cold weather, and sometimes we have an endless string of cloudy days which always make me want to stay in bed.

Our family life is like the seasons as well. Right now we are in midst of someone's babyhood (also someone else's toddlerhood, and the childhoods of three more blessings). I very much try to remember that as I go through my days. Each baby puts his/her own personal twist on our lives. We have survived the "newborn" and "little baby" seasons of Jacob's life and now have entered the blissful calm-before-the-toddler-storm time of "big baby" season. Baby boy naps twice a day, sleeps pretty well, is happy (as long as we stay home...), and remains in the general vicinity when he is put on the ground (unless a sister spirits him away). This is a season that is like spring--I can't really find many things to not like about it.

Of course, not every "baby season" is the same and not every baby is guaranteed a "peaceful spring" and a "hot summer" (after all, we have had freezing weather in April in Central Texas). And if that's the case, well then it's God's will and we just have to roll with it. That child and his/her temperment are perfect for our family. His plans are always greater than ours even though we may have a difficult season.

I do think that the key to surviving these baby seasons is to look at them as they truly are: seasons. Except that unlike the seasons of the year, once these baby seasons are gone they never return.

I try to remember this when I have to plan an outing with details nearly as complex as the invasion of Normandy. Have everyone get ready, feed baby, jet out the door and get back before nap time.

Or like last night when I kept him up all afternoon so I could put him to bed early so I could run downtown and attend a good friend's birthday dinner only to breathlessly plop down 45 mins late at our dinner table and within a short time receive a text message that Jacob had woken up. I had half an hour until I had to race thirty minutes back home for the little guy's next feeding. I wasn't upset, I know God is in control and I was called back to my family. This time of baby intensely needing momma will pass before I know it.

I comfort myself with the "this too shall pass" mentality when my little boy won't go to anyone except for Jason or myself. Peaceful date nights are out of the question right now--I could leave him but why not wait a short season until he (ok, WE) are ready? I firmly believe that God provides the "breaks" that we need as moms. During this season they may only be an hour at the end of the day after all the children have gone to sleep and I am plopped down on the couch next to my equally tired husband. If that is all the wakeful "rest" that God gives me for the day, I (try to) thankfully and happily receive it because I know if I actually required more, He would have provided it.

Babies are only "babies" for a short year. While ours isn't a "baby centered" household where the family bows to the whims of a tiny tyrant, I do believe that "baby seasons", particularly the first six months where everyone is adjusting to adding one more family member and mom is recovering from pregnancy and birth, are meant to be a time where we slow down a bit and "be still" before God. We stay home a little more, I sit and nurse a hungry little person while reading to the older kids, and rest in the knowledge that God has put us in this season to grow us.