This day was sort of usual.

But sort of not.

Jack remembered packing up chairs recently and finding a quiet spot to read together and this time, he had the perfect spot in mind. I watched him and listened to him and felt happy relief realizing it had clicked. He can read.

It was usual in that I still chased time, didn’t feel well and battled insecurities. But, having gone shopping the day before for supplies (plus that special trip for vinegar), Simon, Jack and Max prepared their simple rockets and dodged wasps.

Though it took two weeks to pull it off, it was launch time.

Dave is with us during the day now – that has not been the usual for us. He came out for the launch and so did Ollie and Peaches.  Burton had class.

More vinegar experiments, school work and hours later we took off to the air and space museum (also not usual to be 15 minutes away) where we got to see real rockets, the Discovery space shuttle and the gigantic Black Bird.

Tuckered out at the end of a long day and looking through my pictures from the day, I was brought back to the moments. Those moments that define an experience. Without the pictures to remind me, all I knew was I was tired and it was time to chalk off another day. But the pictures reminded me of Jack reading, Simon skipping and dancing around from the excitement of his launching rocket and then the oohs and ahhs of the museum.

So, it was a day as usual, but not really. The moments defined it otherwise. If I can recognize the moments and the beauty of being there for them, I’ll find that they define all the other days too, even the usual ones.

Ready or not, It’s hard, but good things are happening.