Physically, I'm sitting at my kitchen table, admiring the play of sunlight over my leaf-sprouting, flower-exploding yard.

Mentally, I'm bent over, one hand braced against a wall and one hand wedged into a side-cramp, sweat saturating the shirt at the small of my back. My mental legs are throbbing and trembling. I'm exhausted but exhilarated, and I can't believe I made it to a point where I can catch my breath. I'm proud and a little bit bewildered.

The Physical Me and the Mental Me are taking a giant, cleansing breath together and celebrating.

My living room is filled with the sounds of happy kids, playing nicely. My husband's back, that he threw out a few days ago, is doing much better.

We have a baseball game this afternoon, and despite my own inner grump, I'm loving this year as much as I loved last year. My son is actually thriving and enjoying the game.

Probably because my husband is doing most of the heavy lifting this year, with the practices and helping coach.

My oldest daughter is ELEVEN, and has been for a month. She's heartbreakingly lovely and stubborn and becoming her own person at an alarming rate.

My youngest daughter is SEVEN, and she's all knees and elbows and long, long legs and no front teeth.

Where does the time go?

Our family is all excited about the impending birth of my nephew - my brother and his wife are expecting their new little bundle in mid-May. As much as I am confidently super-done with having babies of my own, I cannot wait to meet the newest member of our family, and to smell that special baby perfume.

DeAnne and I got to spend the day together yesterday as she completed her 6th round of chemo. Only two more to go - which means that at the end of May, we should have:

• no more chemo
• a new nephew
• all my kids out of school on summer vacation (May 29th, people. WAAAH!)

So, that's like, two out of three things that are great, and one that will be great for the first week or so. Heh.