I posted the last blog a few days ago, gathered up my things and went downstairs to the laundry room, prepared to spend at least an hour folding clothes, when my phone rang.  Honestly, I hadn’t even folded ONE ITEM before it rang.  It was the school nurse calling to inform me that Sarah was in the office not feeling well. She was running a low-grade fever and had a sore throat, it came on rather suddenly because she was fine that morning when she got ready for school and left on the bus.

I was quite busy with her and the boys that afternoon….along with catching up with the laundry, I also picked David up early after midterms, then picked up Caleb after newspaper club, took David back to the school for practice, took Sarah to the doctors where her strep test was negative, and got home just in time to take Seth and Caleb to practice.

Yesterday she was feeling much better but spent the day at home with me, in her cozy jammies.  We picked up David again after midterms and I ran into the grocery store to get things for lasagna dinner that evening and a chicken for tonight.

This morning the three youngest ones are all at school but David didn’t have any tests today so he is home and he’s still asleep.

I’m 41 years old, I’ve been married since I was 19, I had my first baby at 20, and life is still busy (as it should be–no complaints) but as I sat this morning on the couch, I was struck by the thought of what I was doing…….MENDING A LONG TEAR IN A TWIN SHEET……

I’ve mended through the years once or twice, when absolutely necessary, but there were many many other times when something ripped and I simply threw it away.  It sounds so awful, downright wasteful, but those years of having little ones at home filled me right up to the brim with other more important work, more important than mending a small hole in a pair of pants that was barely noticeable.  He can wear them anyway.  If a sheet tore, I would groan loudly, fold it up, and stick in the back of the closet.  I can’t mend!  I have to change diapers, get a child out of mischief, clean up strange messes that a house without children wouldn’t see (eggs all over the floor and counters?)….I often wondered why I was tired to tears by the end of the day.  I truly thought something was wrong with me.

Now I see, as I’ve come out on the “other side”, and I see that OF COURSE a newly pregnant mom, nursing an almost one year old, with multiple other children is going to be crying at the end of the day!!!  When you love and care for your children with your whole being, your whole being becomes exhausted!

……Beautifully exhausted, although back then I didn’t see much beauty in it whatsoever.   I was impatient with myself……. but at least I had the sense NOT to do the mending.

Until now.  In the year of our Lord 2018, I am mending.  I am downright marveling at this turn of events.  Yesterday I sat and sewed up tiny holes in “baby” Sarah’s size 8 pants from J Crew.  And then I sewed shut a small hole in Seth’s nice thick athletic pants.  I repaired a pair of gloves that Sarah’s thumb had popped through.  And this morning, I mended a 15 inch long tear in one of our very precious twin sized sheets (there are 6 twin beds in this house that need these sheets).  The mending is imperfectly lovely but as I folded the sheet and put it away, I felt a connection to this thing, this fitted sheet that my child tore (how?) and I repaired.  I took care of something and restored it to usefulness again.  I chose to put this skill aside in those very busy childbearing years, but now have the interest and desire necessary to put my hands to work and “waste not”………

Isn’t it a marvel that life’s path changes?  That a woman can change?  I loved the early baby-years, but I’m loving the “school-aged-children” years, too.

What’s next while I await the next small hole?  The house is tidy, I organized a closet, cleaned out a fish tank, and later on David and I are going to repair a lamp.

Unless of course, the school nurse calls.