September's Gifts

My seven year old!!!

Chloe's yearly carvel birthday cake...my health awareness came after this ritual was established much to her and Patrick's delight. The boys didn't get so lucky!

When Chloe was a baby she had extreme colic. I was yet aware of how foods the mother ate could cause or worsen colic and was surviving on coffee with cream to get through the day. I was falling apart much of the time and yet so thrilled to have this gorgeous girl in our life. We would take pictures of her in all the moments of her happiness and based on photos you never would have known she cried most of the day. My mother once commented on the pictures; we didn't have a single one of her screaming and crying. And so I took one...I love it. It is a freeing feeling to capture not only the perfect moments but also the reality. I now have pictures of the not so pretty mixed into the delightful.

For the September birthday marathon in our family, Patrick and I share a birthday and this year I found myself in bed for 3 days feverish, right through turning 35. I would like a do over, a new birthday to celebrate our shared birthday. Life doesn't slow down for do overs; in fact I don't even think it's a real term. September felt rushed and crowded to me this year and I have been greeted with mastitis as a mother's gentle reminder to slow down and make a plan. I'm trying to obey my body and simplify our house, routines and plans. I want to get real with what I need for myself and my family; simple enough?

The real gifts of falling sick or becoming overwhelmed with life are the ones that bring you into action, create simplicity or simply bring you back to balance. Yes, overwhelmed is how I am feeling, yet from that I know a calm will come, health will return, and autumn will renew me. Our family has all reached that next age and so we say good-bye to September for another year.

In true blogger fashion Chloe snaps a picture of my birthday fever.