- Love is _______. Love is giving up control of the remote. I used to be a fean for Discovery Health shows like Doctor G and Mystery Diagnosis. Last night I realized Chloe had been gone with her Dad for 20 minutes, and I still had it on Nickjr. Love is when my husband always lets me eat first. I know he’s hungry too, but he, without fail, always takes the baby and holds her so I can eat something first. Love is when I allow Chloe to help me fix breakfast simply because it gives her such joy. Sure she makes a huge mess and spends more time eating butter straight from the tub or scratching her back with the spatula, but I always let her help anyway. Love is overlooking little things that don’t matter, like hairs left around the sink or leaving bowls of cereal milk on the counter overnight to curdle. You realize you do some disgusting stuff too, but they reciprocate the ability to accept idiosyncrasies rather than nag. Love is looking at the clock longing for your sweetheart to return home, not just because you need a helping hand, but because you want a hug. Love is cleaning poop out of panties for the third day in a row without chastising or demeaning the one responsible for the task, but remembering that they’re trying and praising them for it. Love is never getting angry about the fact that right when you put on a nice shirt, it’s gonna get covered in spit-up. I could go on like this for days. Love is smiling about the fact that I could.
- There are countless times I wish my Mom was alive so I could tell her something. Today, I specifically wanted to apologize for my former 20 something, childless self. I recall visiting the house when I would come home from leave. I would see dusty shelves and grease spattered kitchen walls and think, “Why doesn’t she clean that up?” The Navy had left me with a personality that craved cleanliness. Even when I left the Navy and moved back to Mississippi, I would spend all day every Saturday cleaning my house from top to bottom. Today as I “hit the high spots”, I noticed dusty shelves and grease spattered kitchen walls. I laughed in spite of myself. I realized how wrong I’d been all those years ago. No Mother has time to make a home spotless, only time to make it livable. And more importantly, even if you had the time, would you want to? Why waste time moving items to dust shelves and scrubbing kitchen walls, when it can be better utilized playing Hungry Hippos or building a blanket fort. Then you can spend the little time you have to clean, picking up tiny balls from the board game and folding blankets to put away. Sorry Mom. You had it all figured out the whole time.
- This morning I was thinking how sad it was that Marlie would have to go back to her Mom’s house today, right after having the party last night. She got a new bike, but wouldn’t be able to ride it. I recalled the same thing had happened at Christmas. She got these great toys, but didn’t get a chance to play with them. It made me sad for her. When Ben was home on lunch break, he told me he had arranged for Marlie to stay an extra night so she would have a chance to ride her bicycle after school. I was so pleased for her, and that Ben was thinking the same thing as me. When she got home, her and Chloe had an ample amount of time to bundle up and play on their bikes before the rain came. When it did begin to fall, it also ushered in a wet, and unexpected husband. I was pleasantly surprised that Ben could get the night off. Now there will definitely be no dusting or scrubbing. There is too much fun to be had.
That is all 🙂