One of those moments

         So, this post won't have any pictures, and it's connected to a sappy post I wrote when Calvin was exactly 2 months old.  (If I were really blog savvy, I'd embed the url of the post here with the "here" in another fancy color so you could just click over to it.  But lucky for you (all 2 of you who read my blog...), I've only posted 3 times since then, so you can just scroll back.  Aren't you impressed I even know the word "embed"?  I'm probably using it wrong...)  Anyway, it's connected to that other post because I had had one of those delicious moments of motherhood where you just want to "ingest" (to use my sweet cousin's word) every detail of it.  Well, I had another one of those moments two nights ago.
         Lindsay and Tim were sitting at the kitchen table doing her math homework.  All the other kids were in bed (a very important part of the equation when you want to really enjoy a moment, a peaceful moment, that is...).  I was sitting in the family room.  I looked up at the table, and there they were:  the two tall, string beans,  all arms and legs, with the exact same double layer, ear-to-ear smile stretched across their faces with the exact same dark brown eyes.  Two of my favorite people in the whole world.  Dad was being silly about something or other, and they were both laughing, enjoying working together.  My heart just swelled inside.
           Lindsay is a very complex, strong young lady.  There have been a lot of moments that have had the polar opposite feeling associated with them, so in a way, I wonder if my enjoyment of this moment was all the sweeter.  She's come so far.  We, as her parents, have learned so much.  She has probably helped me learn more about my Father in Heaven than anything else in my life.  He has given us the agency to choose for ourselves.  No one (no, not even your over-bearing mother) can force you to do anything.  As one of the dozens of parenting books that I've poured over put it, "one can only control oneself".  That has been a definite lesson we've had to learn with our little Lindsay.  It's been quite the journey with her.  I think I can honestly say I wouldn't change any of it for all that it's taught me.  Well, okay, I do wish that one afternoon in the summer of '06 when I locked her out of the house for some type of disobedience or other, so she started pounding on the front door with a hose nozzle, and when I opened the door to tell her to please stop destroying my property, she actually sprayed the hose INSIDE my house, dowsing the stairs and sprinkling my piano.  Yes, that day I'd skip....but for the most part, we have so enjoyed this wildly strong, independent soul that was sent to us.  She is one magnificent woman.  It was so fun to see her with her Daddy the other night.  I took a mental and emotional picture of that moment, and I plan to enjoy it for many days to come.