“Mom will you roll my hair up in curlers?”she asks. So between dinner and devotions we sit in a row and take sections of damp hair and roll them up with pieces of an old sheet. We read about it first several years ago when we read the Little House books aloud. I rememberd how it looked on the TV series when Mary and Laura rolled their hair in rags with the tied ends sticking out all over their heads. Now my straight haired girls love to have a day of curls.. They head off to bed in happy anticipation, except for Tikvah who has fallen asleep during prayer and must be carried again. I read a few more chapters of the Hardy Boys with Gabe and I laugh when I rember fourth grade and how I wondered what there would be left to read when I ran out of Hardy Boys mysterys. I want to hold all these days close because I know they are so brief. I try to read another chapter of Platt’s book, Radical, which we are reading for our wives’ study but I can’t concentrate.
How is it that time accelerates as you get older? Tikvah looks forward to “nothing days” where there is no agenda and we have a big breakfast at home and head to the playground for an hour or so. After 22 years with preschoolers, I enjoy having a few hours ahead of quiet to study Spanish and finish cleaning or kitchen projects. We appreciate things more when we’ve known the lack of them-whether it’s curls or time. And I make a mental note to add those things to my gratitude book: rag rollers, sitting in a line of girls doing each other’s hair, curly heads leaning together at the kitchen counter, slow days to enjoy family times….