patience

     Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the question.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

patience. i used to think i had a lot of patience.

well, i did...at least before i had children. i could sit for hours on end reading a book or doing needlepoint....okay, so maybe that has more to do with having more time for myself than being patient.

but i remember when i was able to always talk with my boys in a calm, even keeled voice. i don't think i can point to one specific change in my life and say, "aha! that has caused my lack of patience!"

but i've found that on days when we all slow down...we are all much happier.

so that during moments when jack looks like this...

or this...

and this...

i am able to slow down and just be in that moment with him. and it is so much easier to help him work through his frustrations.

today was a great day for rainy day craftiness in our house.
louie and i made "new" crayons out of old, broken ones.

of course, jack had to help.

as you can tell, he has also become fascinated with taking his shorts on and off...

this is my kind of project...one that suits my current patience level. once the crayons were peeled, it only took about forty-five minutes until the new crayons were complete.

i hope to have more days like today...

more days when we are all able to slow down and

enjoy the moments of being with each other.