Family Weekends.

I don't know why all of my posts seem to be falling on Thursdays as of late, nor do I truly understand how a whole week can go by before I find myself sitting down at the blog to write again. The time! It moves so fast! Even when I work with all of my might to s-l-o-w it down, it seems to just rebel and move even more quickly than it did before.

Last weekend I got down to Atlanta for the first time since Christmas, taking a long weekend to visit with my favorite mother AND my favorite brother who just happened to be out East from California. This is us after church on Sunday. Do you know what I love about this photo? Aside from the fact that it's one of the rare times all three of us are photographed together? I love that if you took Mom and me out of the shot, Stephen looks rather timeless in his uniform doesn't he? In an indescribable way, I find that comforting.


Of course I also like that between the three of us we managed to coordinate our outfits and the color scheme of the shot quite nicely. That comforts the aesthetically aware side of me.

When we were kids, I never really thought my brother and I looked very much alike. Even a few years ago, when I showed a photo of the two of us to a co-worker and she exclaimed how similar we looked, I still couldn't see it. But this photo? Yeah. We're definitely related.

My weekend with family that I don't see nearly enough was too quick, as weekends with people you don't get to see often enough usually are. I remember reading a line in Mindy Kaling's book last year about how she looks for every opportunity to spend time with her parents. The thing of it is, she explained, is after age 18, you never really get a solid chunk of uninterrupted time with your family again. She's right. Suddenly, after 18 years of togetherness - family vacations and dinners and events and neighborhood barbecues and all the rest of it, you're off on your own, leaving the nest. And while there is plenty of good that comes from that - there are adventures to be pursued and lives to be lived and all of that, a girl cannot help but miss her family.

You learn eventually, that you have to take the time you can get together whenever you can - no matter how narrow the window, no matter how quickly 72 hours insists on passing. (And it always insists of passing rather quickly.) I am insistent right back to those 72 hours though, milking them for all of their worth. And, oh, I find they are worth quite a lot lately - even if all my family and I end up doing is hanging around the house in comfy clothes, eating good food, and watching the NCAA tournament together.

Actually, I imagine that's a pretty good weekend by a lot of people's standards.

Particularly if this little guy is around for some quality hang out time as well.