Of Coffee, Books, and Art

  Oh wonderful Saturday! What more could i ask of thee then slow hours of quiet wanderings with my Man?

   We needed a breather in this daily routine that so rapidly had become a grind….the early morning darkness of leaving for work, the long days of laboring in the elements and toys and dishes and laundry and whining and tears of kids and wondering

if you are doing enough

and when it is too much

and which direction you should target your energy toward next.

The endless medication syringes and feeding pump checks and reordering of formula and feeding bags and oxygen and more medication. The evenings of keeping our One Year Olds  tears at bay and  from totally demolishing our house until he drops into bed, exhausted. The whimpering and tossing of the Two Year Old as she tries to find a comfortable position in your arms, now on the couch, now in her chair, and finally, in her crib, where she tosses and fusses and flails legs wide until she becomes still, and drifts into fitful silence. Then it’s more meds and more mixing of formula and more taping oxygen to sweet cheeks.

So this wonderful Saturday, we took a break for a few hours. There is nothing like good babysitters to comfort your mind as you escape (in the minivan, no less ) to the downtown Lancaster City in the spring. Blossoming trees entwined fragrant limbs overhead. Springtime wafted white petaled fairy breath down the streets.

 

Enthusiastic street musicians played joyously.  Winding Way Bookstore, tucked below the row of Art galleries, was quaintly unique and we could have delved among the treasures and volumes for hours.

 

Galleries of art opened their stately silent doors for our imaginations, and the Fork and Spoon cafe on the corner offered  a sugar free Dulce De Leche latte on their plain white menu.

We hadn’t brought enough quarters for a long period of street parking, so we headed out for Barns and Noble to finish of our little date.

He chose the business section.

I headed for Art. And got sidetracked along the way in Parenting. There was a delightful section specifically for Children with Special needs. I loaded my arms full, and only had time to grab one Art book before we met in the Cafe for coffee, and the most wonderful moist melt in your mouth blueberry muffin.

We smiled and breathed deeply and sipped coffee and broke off crumbles of muffin and browsed good reads, and suddenly it was 3:43 and we had planned to be back by 4:00! So we wrapped up our happy quiet moments and pulled our heads out of books, and headed back to our minivan and our two car seats.

 And life all looked so much more doable.

 We were refreshed and energized and heady with new dreams. Nothing like books to set the imagination on its own boundless marathon.

Our two delightful children were all smiles. The world seemed so right again…though nothing had outwardly changed.

Give yourself a break, my friend! Take a few hours to do something you REALLY love…for we only have this moment today!

Happy Spring!