Care to talk about the weather?

As a mom to triplets, I am notorious for saying I have very little time for the volume of real conversation I enjoy, so please please don't waste my time talking about the weather. And yet, back living in Mississippi for the first time in almost 25 years, I find myself positively fascinated by the weather.

We are in late January here and winter has come softly. Very softly. And while I know weather doesn't revolve around me (if it did, we totally would have had a snow day last Friday!), I believe fall lingered so that I could enjoy every single shade the leaves turned. I oohed. I ahhed. I pointed them out to everyone near me more often than anyone wanted me to. And I enjoyed them in my heart. And as the last one dropped, so did the temperatures -- just slightly. The soft winter requires a scarf and a light coat most days. But the sun shines and the days warm and it has thus far felt very much that winter is softly ushering us back in to her presence after our years in Arizona.

And today, as we are getting in our groove for the second semester that my trio are college students, I am thanking God for how softly growing up came for my oldest three.

Born three months early, I had babies much longer than the average mom. Really. I hear from friends and my siblings about how fast their infants are growing, how quickly they are moving through clothes' sizings.  The triplets didn't do that. Newborn clothes hung on them for months. Months. I was bored to tears with our selection of newborn items long before they outgrew them. And so as soon as they fit, I moved them up to the next size and let the 3 month clothes hang on them. :)

(Already one when these were taken.)

When their first birthdays arrived, I still had fairly immobile littles. And so their infancy stretched, allowing me to savor all the moments.

 (15 months old)

                  

And as we enter this new phase of college life, I am equally relieved that they picked schools so close to me. And I thank God for Benjamin's option of living at home and needing me still. And my Little Red is making sure she fills the empty with her own stuff, her own passions and activities and needs for mommy to take care of.

So I am being gently ushered into the winter of my parenting. The leaves have changed colors in our house to be sure, but they are also lingering, allowing me to enjoy each to absolute fullness.

And I am oh so grateful!