These are the days....

Some days, I forget.
I take the kids with me grocery shopping, where the little guy has a leaky diaper (all over the place!) and I have to deal with that in addition to the actual shopping, in addition to the oil change for the car, then unload everything and put it all away, while the kids are hungry....and it seems like so much, and I feel overwhelmed, and I get tired and I wish things were easier....and I forget.

I forget the passing beauty of these days. I forget that I will not always have little ones who look to mommy for everything, who want to be with me, ones that I can make so joyfully happy with something as simple as a cup of hot chocolate and a game of Go Fish. I forget that one day, my daughter may not allow me to kiss and hug her when I drop her off at school, she may not want me to walk her up to the building, proudly holding my hand. As I get annoyed with the paper and scissors and crayons laying around, I forget that they will not always spend their time making picture after picture for their mommy. I hear people tell me "it gets easier" as the kids get older, and I am relieved, and I forget that I did not sign on for this task of mothering for because it was convenient. I feel 'put out' by the snow clothes needed to go outside and play, and how I will have to dry them all when the kids come in, and I forget that maybe one day they will not have time to be bothered with snowmen. I rush in the morning, overseeing everyone getting ready to leave the house, and I forget how much I love that our 4 year old puts a dinosaur sweater on with his sweatpants, and that there will come a time when he will not be caught dead in a dinosaur sweater, especially with those pants. I tell them over and over again that on school nights they have to sleep in their own beds and I forget that one day they might be begging for their own personal space and not ask to sleep together. I feel irritated by the toys and clothes and shoes spread across the floor, and I forget that one day my house will be clean and they will go their own way and there will be no one here to leave their things around and I will remember these days and I will miss them.

With Stryder not feeling well, I have had to slow down. I have held him and snuggled, he has slept on me and I have remembered. I have remembered these are the days....special, special days and times in this season of my life and I don't want them to pass too soon....
I am so grateful to have remembered, at least for today.