How do you measure a year?

In the time before Logan, my birthday was always a momentous occasion. It was the time of year when I took stock and thought about the ways in which my life was different than it had been just one year before. With the birth of Logan (just 4 days after my birthday last year) this years reflection was a little bit different.

Aside from the obvious changes that a new life brings, there were so many things I hadn't expected. One change in particular was clarity. I'd read so many articles about how motherhood makes you forget things, deprives you of sleep and generally causes the thousand yard stare that many new parents get. For me at least, this wasn't true. Quite the opposite. Where I used to spend so much time thinking about what I needed to be thinking about, I now spend time doing those things that are most important.

So maybe I don't accomplish everything on my to-do list anymore. And maybe I do occasionally forget a to-do or two. What I've come to realize is that some of those to-dos just weren't worth doing. And so many of the things that don't make a to-do list, like reading a book with my son or relaxing with him in the backyard, marveling as he discovers something new (and really allowing myself to be engaged; not weeding or dead-heading the flowers or sweeping the porch), are the most important to-dos of all.

The clarity to see that which is most important in life was the best birthday gift by far.