Hearing the sound of the kids laughing in the back yard, playing together in the snow. Enjoying a perfectly seared filet mignon with Manly Guy at a lower Manhattan steak house. Sitting at my desk working while our daughter S makes carnitas tacos for a family dinner with minimal help. Greeting the kids as they enter our apartment after T walks his sisters home from school.

I was able to enjoy each of these special moments this week and it was glorious. We are encouraging the kids to be a bit more independent and they each seem to be rising to the occasion. I am acutely aware of how good life is right now and I’m trying to take note, to be conscious of it.  Life doesn’t get any better than this. Time is flying faster than ever and I regularly remind myself to be present, to be here now.

I’m not saying that life is absolutely perfect, although in the big picture, it is really. One can always think of ways to improve what one has. It is the human condition to want more. I believe that I’m content. I feel that I’m grateful for our NYC life. And yet . . . sometimes I get frustrated because there is *always* too much to do. (I can hear Manly Guy interjecting now: “And whose fault is that?” teasing me with a smile.) I occasionally chafe at the lack of space in our Brooklyn apartment. And unlike three of our four kids, I don’t love winter weather.

I find it amusing that I can know in my bones how good I have it and still yearn for improvements.  And when the next (inevitable) challenge arises, I will look back to this week, this month, and wish then that my life would be just like it is now.