permitted...

January is nearly finished. Normally, the first month of the year feels endless to me. But not this year. This year it has flown by.  

I don't think we have been particularly busy but we did have one major development...

Yes, Ashlyn finished the 30 hours of online driver's training, passed her permit test & we are now logging driving hours. I got the privilege of riding along with Ashlyn & her driving instructor on her first lesson. As they explained, the parents are doing 90% of the training so we should probably know what we are doing.

Ashlyn did a great job & at one point I realized, long before she did, that she was getting on the freeway.  All I could think of was the scene in Clueless where Dione accidentally gets on the freeway & the chaos that ensues.  When we arrived back home & were recapping the experience to Chris & Landon, Ashlyn said that she actually thought of that scene herself & had to fight to keep herself from laughing.

It is hard to believe that we are already at this point in life. I was just talking with a friend about the earlier stages of parenting where life often seems monotonous & never-ending. She compared it to the movie Groundhog Day where you repeat the same day over & over again. I remember that season so well but somehow it also seems like a lifetime ago. Now the days seem to be flying by like the blurring of a landscape out the window of a speeding train.

I want it to slow down.

Way down.

It will be all too soon that Ashlyn will have her license & I'll be watching her drive away.  Not long after she might be going away to college.  I don't think my mama's heart can handle thinking of anything beyond that point right now.  Instead I will focus on this smile & the blessings that God has given us in the here & now.