Time Flies

I can't let April slip by without one more post. Where have the weeks gone? It's hard to believe we're turning the corner on another month and heading shamelessly towards summer. Another spring is slipping by too quickly. My children ran around all weekend in shorts and bare feet aclimating their summer knees and toes. There are jars and butter dishes filled with dirt, leaves, caterpillars and worms all around the outside of the house. On an especially good day, they found a huge woolly worm, all black and fuzzy and prickly. They kept him in a jar showing him off to neighbors and passersby like he was a carnival act. I swear they would've charged a fee to check him out if they could.

This is what has happened to April: finding bugs, cutting grass, planting sunflower seeds, taking walks to the park and getting caught in a spring downpour (we've had to be rescued twice). We've spent hours in the backyard rediscovering plans we laid last summer, "Look the hollyhocks came back," identifying the fuzzy leaves of Black-eyes Susans, and watching the giant leaves and vines emerge from the pumpkins we discarded in the compost last fall. We planted a potato patch, our first one, and the kids check daily to see if any green sprouts have pushed their way through the soil. We're already fantasizing about the new potatoes we'll roast on the grill this summer.

So tomorrow begins May-bring on the flowers from the showers. It's the derby, Cinquo de Mayo, the Indy 500, and the 4th birthday of my little guy. He tells me all the ways to make 4, "three and one make four, Mom, and two plus two make four." But none of it adds up to me. How can 4 years have gone by since I raced with swollen ankles into that hospital, barely making it in time to give birth to my beautiful boy? I'd like to slow down these days, and worry a little less about what's not getting done. Time flies; it races along and it doesn't care who it sweeps up in its path. But we can in our little ways attempt to slow it down. We can spend a Satuday turning over rocks and finding bugs and salamanders; we can stop mulching and throw the ball; and we can run and laugh in the spring rain. Who knows, we might even spot a rainbow.