Summer Learning

I want to teach my kids a lot of things.  I just realized that summer is half over and we’ve done very little book stuff.  I’m hopelessly disorganized and enjoy going to the beach way too much.

I hate to brag, however there is one area where I am clearly succeeding in my quest for learning.

They have great appreciation for ice cream. 

And MnM’s.  And cookie dough.

I can’t help but feel proud.  Just don’t leave them laying around. 

They’ve fine tuned the art of blizzard eating.  If it melts, just guzzle it.

Spoons are optional.

Don’t waste a drop!

Summer learning at its best.

Tough Days

Blankie washing days are tough around here.

Even on a sunny day it takes too long.

So long that they must take matters into their own hands.

Good thing we don’t wash them too often!

Celebrate the Small Stuff

I love special events. Events we go to and everyone is bathed and dressed nice. Or at least nicer than normal. Which doesn’t take much.

Last weekend my cousin got married. We made of weekend of it with my parents and my sister’s family. Maren was one of the flower girls. It was a big day. Lots of fun. Lots of friends and relatives I don’t see very often. I love big days.

But the big, special days are few and far between. If I only live for the big stuff, the every day will get pretty boring. I will become pretty cranky.

As I get older and further along in my parenting I am realizing that I love the small stuff too. There are so many more of those every day moments that are precious; walking back from the fireworks carrying little people in pajamas who have their arms wrapped around my neck, getting sunburned at the fourth of July parade every year, floating down the lazy river with a preschooler on my lap and her arms around my neck, being the one they cry for when they have a nightmare, helping mend scraped knees and stop bloody noses, being there when they have bad days and good days, and when my nursing babies stopped crying the minute they heard my voice. That’s the good stuff.

I watched my aunt and cousin get teary as they started taking pictures at the wedding and it made me realize that the small stuff gives texture to the big, special stuff. I’m guessing they weren’t teary over just that day, but a lifetime of small stuff that led to it.

If I’m disconnected as a mom in the small things, there won’t be much of a connection in the big things. Sometimes when I am making my twentieth trip up the stairs at a waterpark, I wish I was reading a book or in the room doing my own thing. I don’t always want to be engaged. It would be nicer to stay home from scorching parades and baseball games. But what could I be doing that would be better than the small stuff?

Hours spent in the backyard, red-neck water park.

Morning cuddles. Now.

And then.

After bath snuggles.

Hot baseball games.

Birthday parties.

Ice cream cones in the backyard.

Celebrating the small stuff everyday is one of the keys to contentment in mothering. You don’t get those moments back. Be there and enjoy them. They give texture and richness to the big stuff. And life.