Betwixt and Between

This week’s Header Challenge theme was selected by Stewart, aka IMac.  He said it was because we were betwixt and between Christmas and New Year. 

This was going to be a hard one for me, I get the in between the holidays thing, but really, our Christmas here at the Farm doesn’t end till January fifth and Twelfth Night festivities.  Well, the fun and feasting of Christmastide really spills over to Epiphany and depending who you follow for your count, twelfth night can be either the fifth of sixth.  So really the “in between” holiday wise is New Year’s Day itself.

Anyway, I wasn’t thinking of the holidays when I realized the real betwixt and between that Dirt and I are both feeling.  Though I do believe it has been the holidays that have magnified our betwixt and between-ness.  It was Christmas Eve when I finally spoke to Dirt what I was feeling and to my surprise he had been feeling the same.

We, Dirt and I, find ourselves in a transition, a betwixt and between.  We no longer have children to raise. That time for us that lasted nearly thirty years has ended.  Not that we are not still parents, but the workings of that role is changing. 

Three of our girls have gone to live under the protection of their husbands.  And growing families of their own. 

Even though Elisabet is still at home and unmarried, she no longer needs rearing.  She needs what we all need, wise counsel, helpful guidance, Godly protection and she will always find that here until she too is called to be a wife.  But I find that I no longer have just a cute kid at home, I have a business partner, a companion, a sounding board and a cute kid. 

The center photo in this week’s header was an accident, a purely candid shot of my youngest grandson, Aksel, chasing his Auntie Bet on our Christmas Day walk.  But it rather sums up how Dirt and I were feeling as Christmas came upon us.  The three of us searching for what is important to keep in our Christmas together and what was fun for a time, to help youngsters understand the fullness of the season.  

To be sure, when a man comes for Bet’s hand in marriage, things will change once again, but I do believe we are well ensconced in that time between rearing our children and watching the fruit of that season come to blossom and continue in new children in new ways.

There are many betwixt and betweens.  Even the sunset that I chose for the background of the collage is a betwixt and between, day is fading but not yet night.  Betwixtes can be a definite time of their own, and celebrated for all the brightness, fullness and color they bring that is special to the time that happens to lie between two others.

Go see what the others, Dave, Fishing_Guy,  Mac, and Gail’s Man, have done with Imac’s theme choice of “Betwixt and Between”.