Monday, April 11, 2011

Redeeming the time.

I've been thinking . . . when you're a child, you can't wait to be a teenager (you don't know the angst yet). When you're a teen, you want to be out of high school and living the good life in college (you have no idea what studying really means). When you're in college you just want to get married (totally understandable). Then you get married and all you want is to have babies so you can sit and cuddle and smell their soft little heads all day (what's sleep deprivation? You've been in college where you sleep until noon if you want to). Then you want them to walk. And talk. And learn to read. And you can't wait until they're old enough to actually hang out with you and be fun. If you have girls, you want to go shopping with them, have lunch, get your nails done . . . you know, be adults together.

And then all of a sudden, you're doing it and having a great time, but inside you're screaming, "NOOOOO! Stop the clock!" because you know that TOMORROW they will be gone and might live far away and you'll only see them once or twice a year. *sigh*

It went way too fast.

Yesterday Abbie and I spent the afternoon at our favorite outdoor mall in Richmond. We had lunch at Chipotle, found jeans for her, a denim skirt for me, and had a pedicure. But mostly we just enjoyed being together, talking girl talk, solving everyone's problems, and laughing a lot. I love hanging out with all my girls together, but with one in Virginia, one in South Carolina, and one in Tennessee we only get to do that once a year at the most. And trying to get all five kids together? Just about impossible, especially now that Mike is in the Air Force.

I feel like my grandmother with all this lamenting over "where did the time go?" So I'll just say this: Don't waste it. Don't spend your time doing things that won't matter when you're gone. When I'm dead, I want my kids to talk about the fun things we did together, but for that to happen, we have to do fun things together, whether that's going to Disney World or baking cookies or singing in the garden while we pick beans.

Make the time count. And get a pedicure—it's fun!

Be thankful ~

Karen

2 comments:

Catherine said...

You are so right!! I'd rather spend an afternoon playing softball with Tim and Number 7 than make sure my chores got done before we went to bed.

Deb said...

I'm crying in my strawberries:(