Tonight, I was driving down the road with the children. They were giggling back and forth when THIS song came on the radio. Everything within me needed to hear this song. I needed it to take me back to a past moment in time when things were just a little slower than they were this week. I needed it, so I turned the radio up. Loud.

You see, this week was a doozy. It was busy. David and I found ourselves in the middle of a “it’s time to be grown ups” storm complete with a water heater that needed to be replaced, a car air conditioner that needed to be worked on, a few health related office visits, an out of town work trip and a “holy crap I’m already having contractions”. The storm of responsibilities was drenching us and we wanted to escape.

One of the many perks of marrying my high school sweetheart is we grew up together. We didn’t have adult years to form our own lives apart. We never created a home with anyone else but each other. We are who we are today because of each other. We’re practical. Although yes, we’re in our 30′s and we have responsibilities, we’re parents, we’re homeowners, we both have jobs, but, we choose to keep things simple. A fancy car or home doesn’t appeal to us because we find the monthly payments suffocating. We want to just be. We want to live simply because that makes us happy.

Back to the song. “Shhhhhhh…” I told the children, “listen to this song, it’s a classic.” “A classic song doesn’t have words,” Eli replied. “Yes, you’re right, classical music doesn’t have words but I mean this song is a classic. It was written years and years ago and it will never get old.” I’m sure neither of them knew what I meant, but we drove down the road to our house and kept listening.

David will be home soon from his last out-of-town work trip until after our baby is born. The water heater is fixed, so is the air conditioner in my car. Now the garage door needs some attention and apparently a broken windshield took place on David’s end. I’m learning to embrace the contractions I’m having because they just bring me hope of yet another “go into labor naturally” birth.

The storm is nearly over. Summer is almost here. And everything will be just fine.

We are…

enjoying open windows and hours and hours of outdoor play, all while counting down the days until summer.

tending, checking, watering and weeding the garden.

building barns for plastic horses, inventing new automobiles for lego men and sliding across the wood floor in our socks.

watching peaches and apples grow on our backyard trees which we like to call ‘our orchard.’

finishing chapter books, completing book reports and growing excited about end of the year school activities.

preparing for a dance recital, a baby, and wondering, oh how we’re wondering what this little babe will be.

and all this, we are doing all this, while enjoying the gift of an ordinary day. Because mom found herself re-reading the book and falling in love with simplicity once again.

On Mother’s Day 2005, I took a pregnancy test. It was positive. I was officially pregnant with my first child. David and I rested side by side on our bed, staring up at the skylight, and we were in total shock. The pregnancy was planned, but we were still in complete shock. Everything ran through my mind at that moment, including, that I didn’t want to know the big question that everyone asks a pregnant woman, “are you having a boy or a girl?”

Throughout my three pregnancies, I’ve been asked that question over and over and over again. My response is, “I’m having a surprise.” And from there, I get so many different responses.

“How can you decorate the nursery?”

“How can you buy clothes?”

“Oh, I could never do that!”

“Doesn’t the suspense kill you?”

“But…then you just end up with a bunch of yellow and green!”

“How can you bond with your baby?”

I’ve heard it all and it doesn’t bother me, because I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s not many surprises in life. I mean, those sweet, priceless surprises. So, since there aren’t many to be had, I make my own. I choose to not know. That moment in the delivery room is like no other. We make sure the doctor doesn’t announce the baby’s sex, I don’t want to hear it from the doctor, I want to hear it from my husband. And that moment, that moment when David says, “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!” well, that moment is amazing.

I pulled Emma’s baby clothes down from the attic a few days ago because I wanted this outfit. A simple white knit cardigan with matching bottoms. The outfit Eli wore in the hospital and the outfit Emma wore as well. I washed it and dried it and now it sits waiting for another little E to wear it. Our third surprise and it’s just a few weeks away.