Grasping the Wind

There is a phrase that I've often repeated to myself in these years of raising preschoolers - "The days are long and the years are short." And that statement has remained true until recently. But now the days are short as well.

No longer does it seem like a lifetime until I feed the children lunch and put them down for a nap. Now I'm scrambling to get things done as the hour pass in a blur. I used to be annoyed when my husband came home thirty minutes late. Now I'm shocked when I hear the garage door open at six o'clock.

Remember when we were kids and it seemed like a million years from one Christmas to the next? A blink is all it takes to bring December 25th around these days.

You'd think having four children five and under would slow things to a creep for me these days. Not so. My days are evaporating like an ice cube in a frying pan. The challenge for me, and every other mommy, is to slow things down. To savor the little moments: a five-year-old learning to read, a toddler learning to sign "please," a newborn laughing in his sleep.

It all brings new meaning to the phrase "grasping the wind."