I don’t know if any of you have visited The Nienie Dialogues but it has quickly become my favorite blog. Not long after Sue & Amy introduced me to the world of blogging, I stumbled across this sweet read by accident. It is a young (27 years old) mother of four, who is incredibly creative, fun-loving and obviously LOVES motherhood. Not quite a month ago she and her husband were in a horrific plane crash and both suffered serious burns over most of their bodies. They are in stable condition in Arizona and the children are living with her sisters.
Despite the fact that I have never met this family, I have been deeply concerned for their well-being and check for updates from her sister daily. My husband thinks I’m crazy because I record news snippets, scour web-pages and talk about them daily. Stephanie isn’t super mom, but she is in love with her family. I hope that I express even a fraction of the love for my family that she does!
Over the past few days, her sister has been re-posting some of her readers’ favorites. I have smiled and laughed all over again… even though it hasn’t been that long since I read them the first time. They repeated one of my favorite posts earlier this week.
Anna Quindlen once wrote: “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 particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set 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 in 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”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).
Today, we hauled out the picnic blanket and ate Subway sandwiches in our backyard. We blew bubbles, looked at mushrooms, watched butterflies, played on the playground and sat on the potty in the grass. Despite the fact that every little detail didn’t go as planned (Josh watched football, Beemer ate Ella’s lunch and there were no potty successes), it was the perfect day.
Stephanie says on her website, “Starting today I am going to be better. I never had a basket-head mother, and I AM NOT GOING TO BE A BASKET-HEAD MOTHER! I am going to listen, love, communicate, cherish, enjoy, teach, preach and prepare my children. Time for everything else later.” Me too!
**please take time to visit her blog when you get a chance, you won’t be disappointed!
