Lydia, Megan & Annika enjoying the November sunshine

My mom and sisters for mom's 69th birthday

“She came tonight as I sat alone, the girl I used to be…
And she gazed at me with her earnest eye and questioned reproachfully;

Have you forgotten the many plans and hopes that I had for you?
The career, the splendid fame, and all the wonderful things to do?
Where is the mansion of stately height with all of its gardens rare?
The silken robes that I dreamed for you and the jewels in your hair?

And as she spoke, I was very sad for I wanted her please with me…
This slender girl from the shadowy past the girl that I used to be
So gently rising, I took her hand, and guided her up the stair
Where peacefully sleeping, my babies lay innocent, sweet, and fair.

And I told her that these are my only gems, and precious they are to me;
That silken robe is my motherhood of costly simplicity.
And my mansion of stately height is love, and the only career I know
Is serving each day in these sheltered walls for the dear ones who come and go.

And as I spoke to my shadowy guest, she smiled through her tears at me.
And I saw that the woman that I am now, pleased the girl I used to be.

- Author Unknown
Quoted in Womanly Dominion by Mark Chanski

This was our Christmas picture. I think I took about 40 pictures I just kept on saying, "Annika" and everyone else had orders to just keep looking at me and smiling. Rachel said her jaw was so sore that evening that she wasn't sure if she could go to chorus practice!

The biggest mistake I made (as a parent) is the one that most of us make... I did not live in the moment enough. This is particulary clear now that the moment is gone, capurted only in the photograph. There is one pictureof (our three children) sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swingset on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been is such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.
Anne Quindlen