"When they are 9 and 10 they won't want to be home - they will want to be at friends' houses and I will be able to get through the entire paper," I think longingly. But then I immediately counter that with the memory that just 3 years ago, I had two in diapers and never even got through a headline, let alone an entire article.

And then I try to wrestle myself back to the present moment, to appreciate where we are now and to accept and enjoy it as it happens - good times and bad.

Being mindful in my mothering - acknowledging moments and stages - is a difficult but rewarding struggle. It is so easy to let the small joys and battles dominate my view of our family experience rather than to step back and see the day to day as part of a larger continuum, one that is rushing by at lightening speed.