This Morning

Here's Paul snuggling with Fetcher very early this morning while he waits for his waffles to cook.  We were all up at 5:30 a.m. to get Paul and Ben on the road to northern Virginia for a 7:30 orthodontist appointment.  This doctor is a good friend of Ben's and also a very good orthodontist, so the long drive is worth it to us.

It was still dark when we got up and surprisingly cold.  The aftermath of our weekend storm was a patch of beautiful weather, so we've been leaving the windows open at night, allowing the crisp, cool air to freshen the house.  Upstairs in bed the cool temperature was nice and cozy, but downstairs it was just plain chilly!  Paul warmed up with his fuzzy green jacket and his soft, purring cat while Ben showered and I cooked the waffles from the batter I had made and refrigerated last night.   

Paul packed up little bags of sun chips for his lunch this week while I did the "waffle samba," moving gently between monitoring the waffle iron and making Paul's bagel for lunch and packing up his lunch box.  When Ben came in he made himself a cup of coffee to go and pulled a shot for me to blend up later in my coffee shake.  Paul needs to memorize all the books of the Bible for a test next week, so we all listened to Thing-a-ma-kids on iTunes sing through the Books of the Old Testament and then the Books of the New Testament while Paul reviewed the written list of book names.  

Ben read the news headlines on his Mac and I had a bite of waffle while Paul hunted up a pair of sweat pants, pulled them on over the karate pants he had slept in, brushed his teeth and was ready to go.  We had our morning family hug, and they were off by 6:15. 

It had been a cozy start to the day, and now the dawn is breaking and the "real" day is beginning.  I'm thinking of what I'll be doing at work, how Paul's teeth might hurt and how that might affect his Spanish quiz, what to set out to thaw for dinner, and the clever plot of the new book I'm reading (Legend by Marie Lu).

I'm also thinking of how this time last year my mother was dying.  She lived a life full of family moments as dear but as fleeting as my early morning with Ben and Paul.  You can't hold on to these precious moments, but you can at least recognize and appreciate them.