Of daughters and blessings

Being the marmee of eight is pretty much a full time job. Quite frankly, at this time in my life, it is requiring everything I have. I wanted to share the really cool parts of my life with you today.


This is going to be the lovely sight that greets me for the next month. My precious oldest daughter Ashley,seated at the puzzle table putting together our annual Christmas puzzle.
There is just something about seeing one of your daughters doing what you used to love doing, that gives you this little cozy feeling inside. The Christmas puzzle is a tradition that has been passed down since I was a child. I used to love doing the puzzles. Now, it is passed down to the children around here, that is not to say that I don't stop by and put the occasional piece in, mind you. But moms have resposibilities that keep them from just sitting at the table like they used to do.
Having Ashley Megan is like having a Christmas present that I get to unwrap every morning of every day. I get such delight from having her around. What is it about a child? There is a little of me in her that I can see way down deep, but what she has done with it, is what is the really cool part. She loves Jane Austen, and I grew up loving Jane Austen also, but she uses quotes from her books and makes the stories come alive in the little kids imaginations. She is the reason that every New Years we watch the 6 hour version of Pride and Prejudice. She takes the ordinary things that I do or did and makes them all magical and mystical. I loved Sherlock Holmes as a child and grew to love mysteries of all kinds. She is also a mystery fan, and we have seen every one of the Jeremy Brett versions of Sherlock Holmes, and any others that are fit to see. She just makes life so interesting. She and I share 2 hobbies, spinning and knitting. We get a lot of enjoyment out of bouncing ideas and, grin, design improvements (mistakes) off of each other.She shares my love of teaching and has taken on most of the homeschooling.I am so happy to have her.
Having Aubrey Nicole is like having a contagious giggle in a jar that you can open anytime you want. Aubrey is a ray of sunshine that can not be dimmed. She is such a vivacious little piece of life. I love to have Aubrey around because I know that she will always make me smile, but in the event that I am not smiling, she is always concerned and nurtures me very nicely. Aubrey took a different part of me and grew it really, really big and it touched the sky in her. She is a charmer from the word go and loves life and people and theater. She is responsible for overseeing the laundry and loves to bake the deserts in our life. Aubrey has widened my horizons and made me grow in very unexpected areas of my life, I really will miss her. I lose her to Australia in January for 3 months. I really don't want to think about it, but I did mention to her last week that it was going to be so quiet, read that as tame, around here without her.
These are my oldest daughters, the two parts of my life that I am so very lucky or blessed to have. I will share about my 3 other little female sunbeams in a different post. Oh, and of course, little Bailey, who is never far from Ashley. Sugar loves you Bailey!!!