She wouldn't let me take a picture of it...

Not Cathy.  Her rag curls didn't
look anywhere near this elegant...

Cathy, in what must have been a last minute decision to put her hair up in rag curls last night, used a couple pairs of multi-colored socks, instead of "rags," then came down to breakfast this morning with the wild arrangement still on top of her head.

 We all smirked, but Gabe took a long look at her over his oatmeal and observed (in a perfectly executed throw-away line), "Looks like someone didn't get up on the wrong side of the bed, but on the wrong side of the dresser."

Heehee!  Just had to share that.  For posterity.




But, seriously...

I find myself more and more grateful for the quiet times we spend together as a family, slow mornings over the breakfast table, long afternoons working together in the yard, cozy evenings watching movies or reading together.  As our children grow up and move out into lives of their own, I miss how each of them adds their own spin to the atmosphere.  And how those spins tip to the side and interact with all the other spins in constantly changing choreographies.  Nobody can fling a quip quite the way Kevvy (25) does -- though Gabey (9) comes close; nobody can hold a candle to Paul in a debate -- though everyone tries;  and there's no matching the individual sillinesses of Anna vs.  Frater Philip vs. well...  any of the rest of them.  They're all peculiarly peculiar and perfectly wonderful and lovable.  And they all grow up so fast. I can almost feel the air being stirred by time flying by these days.

Not only is my time limited with each of them, but their time together as siblings is so short and precious. They may not know it now, but they're going to feel the loss of one another as time goes by, too.   Cathy doesn't know it now, but the day will come when she misses her little brother's annoying comments.  Gabe will look back some day and long for the chance to tease his big sister. Instead of looking for a peaceful corner away from each other, they'll look for any chance they can just to be together again.   And I'll hold all the memories of them together as they are now -- even bickering like they tend to do -- in my heart forever.  They drive me crazy sometimes, underfoot like they are and chattering constantly -- but I'm going to miss tripping over them, I know.  And I'm really going to miss my daily kid comedy show.