Catherine at Sunset

The weekend was busy. The weather has finally turned, the heater is off, the trees are budding, we did some planting in the garden and started some seeds, there's a big pile of mulch in the backyard, and we had our first Spring thunderstorm this evening. Try as I might to make sure we spend time outside over the winter, it's a big pain and the kids don't like it that much (especially Michael Jr who apparently has no tolerance for being cold), so now that all we have to do to go outside is open the door, it's almost impossible to make them come in. If I had an outdoor kitchen, I might never come in myself.

These pictures are from one of the first warmish days a week or so ago. I usually try to take pictures of all the kids, but it often turns out that one of them is just feeling a bit more camera cooperative than the others, and this happened to be Catherine's day.

Maybe it's because she's the oldest and therefore most things we encounter with her are still new to me, but very often watching her has the effect of making me marvel that these little people have been entrusted to us.

Any morning that you wake up and feel you should pray that I don't screw the kids up too much that day, please don't hesitate; you can be sure that your prayers are echoing mine, and, well, the more the better. They deserve it.