How To Catch a Butterfly

Step 1. Grab your BFF, aka your willing and loyal assistant, known to others as your baby brother. Step 2. Take out the plastic container that your mom wouldn’t let you bring in from last weekend’s lake catch. (Think lake water filled jug that housed the instantly doomed fish-poor thing didn’t stand a chance- just like the frog.) Step 3. Get a pad of paper and PLAN, PLAN, PLAN your Monarch capture. Step 4. Get on all your serious rain/hiking gear, as it is balls to the wall butterfly catching time. (Side note- Don’t worry, your mom will clean up the tornado of supplies later.) Note, there will be challenges dear Butterfly Explorers. Baby brother will fall in his too big hiking boots. Being perched on a mulch hill, holding a jar and frantically listening to your shrill, excited scream will frazzle his little four year old self. The pressure is tough. But stay focused. Also understand you may catch things like a bee. Don’t bring them in your house. Your mom will be P-I-S-S-E-D. Last night I laughed as I watched my babies run across the lawn with a plastic jug. Long, cinnamon brown, tan legs zoomed by with clunky boots, followed by a smaller assistant noting her every move and catching her excitement. It was magic. After the truly gut wrenching couple of weeks our family had we needed a little magic. My mom was upstairs listening and watching from a window above as Alessandra and Vincey squealed and laughed as they put their plan into action. I smiled to myself thinking, this is what summer is about: being outside, at home, with your babies and listening to the sound of happiness. For those who don’t know, my children are extremely active- they live to run around, explore, create, investigate and soak in the world around them. Non- stop from 5:45 AM on. It’s exhausting, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yesterday, on my run, I was feeling so heavy about how fast summer is going. Each day seems like we edge closer to the start of school and it’s sooooo depressing. This is the first year both kids will be in school full time. For the past 8 years my life has been non stop with at least one little one at home, sometimes two. Running around like a lunatic, cooking, cleaning, pushing a stroller for miles etc. The silence will be strange. More about that later, but for now, in the calm of normalcy- big laughs, big smiles and teamwork- I am able to sit back and reflect about how sweet life really is. 🦋❤️