The family room is clean. All the plastic green and red crates are back on the shelves. This Christmas season is officially over. In the corner where the decorated tree stood, there is nothing but white cabinets and the beige wall: a clean slate. It seems like it is the way we start each new year:  a blank canvas.  As I hang the new calendar and pencil in the important upcoming dates, the events which seemed far off have now jumped closer into focus. Graduation will be here before we know it, and dropping off my baby at college will follow shortly after. The six months between now and then are elastic. I want them to stretch on as along as possible and yet I know that time will be here in a snap.

Six months. Roughly twenty-four weeks. About 168 days. Time is s strange thing. When you are just living day by day only focused on the here and now, you barely realize time is passing by. That is how I felt back in June when we brought home the puppies. Each hour we spent together we paid attention to every detail. Puppy yawns, poops, and barks never went unnoticed. The days were long with naps, playtime, and cuddles. We spent hours on the rug or on the grass tossing the toys and playing tug of war with ropes. Scheduled visits to the vet for puppy shots were our main markers for time and growth. Before I knew it we were into the fall season, the puppies were three times their homecoming in the six months that had passed.

That leaves me to believe that if I want to truly savor and stretch out these next six months before my last little bear cub leaves, I need to do as I did with Koda and Summer. Pay close attention to the details of the moment. Leave my errands for another time, and sit with him when he is around. Be present. Don’t get consumed with the future. June will be here before we know it. That leaves us over 150 days to talk, eat meals, laugh at Office episodes, play board games, go to movies, and just chill together with the dogs. He is one of my blog fans but especially enjoys when I read my writing aloud. Here’s to six more months of “blog-sharing” with my baby bear.

Two hundred forty one thousand nine hundred minutes. 

How do you measure six months in a life?