Time

Where does it go?

I cannot believe it is now the 13th of December. It was May, the last time I looked.
How did Christmas manage to sneak up so stealthily?

Time steals the little things as well. You get up early and try to syncronise brain and body, feed all the hungry mouths, animal and human, attempt to create some semblance of order in the farmhouse by feebly pushing a hoover round and picking up toys, clothes and heaven knows what else.

Time sneaks in and steals a few hours and you think 'How can it be lunchtime, where did the morning go?"

Time sneaked up and rearranged my face and body, the rascal.
One moment I was a fresh faced young lass but now a stranger's face looks back at me in the mirror. She looks like a mixture of my mother and grannie. She smiles if I smile at her, so seems friendly enough plus her teeth are all her own, so a bonus.
I try to avoid seeing her, to be honest, as no amount of fancy creams nor make up can bring back the face which was once there.

They say that you get the face you deserve but I wonder if it was in my karma to receive more than a fair share of wind skelped cheeks or ruts in my forehead deeper than the frozen tracks which the tractor makes on the ground.
Laughter lines too. I quite like those. They make it easier to fold the face into position while the rest of you falls apart, helplessly. Human origami at it's best.

When did time make me a fifty year old woman? I only feel about twenty one inside....OK, thirty three on a bad day.
You puff a little more or take slightly longer rests than you did thirty years before. Your third bairn runs much faster than the first one ever did.
The bags of feed are that little bit heavier these days. Perhaps it is because they are in metric weight instead of Imperial. Yes, that's it. They have put more feed in them.

Time does not bother the little one. It is a long day packed with playing,  cuddles, adventures, stories,
food and after an eternity, bath and bed time. Christmas seems a huge distance away.....as far away as Russia where the bears live....and that is VERY far away.

He asks me "Am I big yet, Mummy?"

"Much bigger than you were, my dear, but there is still plenty of time"..........