Life is chaotic and stressful. Let’s just assume that statement stands until further notice.

In the meantime, the kids keep right on growing and changing, and I hang on for dear life, trying to soak in the joy that mingles with the exhaustion, frustration and uncertainty. Life is so rarely entirely one thing or another. I can think of very few times that have been purely awful or entirely blissful. Finding joy seems to be an exercise in plucking it from the messy reality we live. I don’t always do it well, but I keep trying.

In that vein, we recently spent a lovely weekend at a cabin in Pickett State Park with some friends. We felt privileged to be along for baby Kathryn’s first camping trip. Corin had a run-in with a wasp, but otherwise it was a relaxing time and a great way to enjoy the first blush of spring, which has come late to the South (and pretty much everywhere else, from the sound of it) this year.