Summer and Kids–Two Great Things

Oh my goodness! I know I am always writing things like this – and I know that everyone already knows the crazy truth that time goes by ridiculously fast, but, as I said . . . my goodness! It was really truly just a tiny minute ago that I was sadly thinking about summer time winding down, about kids going back to school, about our care-free days gone for another nine months. And, it was only another second beyond that when that same summer had been just about to start: it was last May and feeling nothing like it because it was cold and wet. I was sneaking off for a week with Mike to AZ while Ashley tended here, and planning out what I would accomplish over the upcoming summer months to get ready for my end-of-summer baby Anders.

Yet, here we are again – back to that point: at the beginning of a season that I was only yesterday sad to see ending. . . . And, it makes me feel very happy (though realization of the quick passage of time does always makes me feel a bit of a panic over things I might not be snatching up and moments that might be zipping along too speedily to capture as forever memories).

It was the happenings of this past week that have made me realize summer is already nearly here: Mike giving me the best ever Mother’s Day gift of new soil for my front clay flower beds (along with the hard labor of digging up said clay), me pulling weeds and planting, the kids bringing home papers with the dates of end-of-year school festivities, and Penny’s play times with potato bugs.

Here Penny is with “Sweetie”. Sweetie entertained Penny for a long while this morning as I threw piles of dead clippings and weeds into garbage cans to finish off my early spring yard work.

We do get a nice routine and a healthy schedule going strong when the older kids are in school, but I look forward to having them home with me for the next few months. There is a little more chaos involved in most days, and there are quite a few more messes to keep on top of, but it is turning out, more and more, to be a fact that I actually really like having a small army for a family. Look at all of them (minus one). They are . . . hmm . . . I don’t know . . . just good and what life feels like it should somehow be all about. I am excited to have my world revolving more constantly around them (and around whatever we want it to be about as opposed to things needing done) for the next few months.

And, speaking of kids and liking them. There are some pretty great things to be said about kids. One thing I love is how they forgive and forget quickly and rarely hold grudges or harsh judgments for long. Take this messy little fella:

I don’t mind about him being a messy and trouble making little fella because he says things like this to me: “Mom, you’re my little buddy.”

But, that has nothing to do with forgiving and forgetting quickly. Yesterday, Jesse was forlornly crying about something Penny had or had not done and insisting that she was not just “bad” or even the “baddest”, but the “BADDIEST GIRL!” To hear him you would think no love could or would ever exist between them. Nevertheless, ten minutes more time found him sitting in my master bathroom on a big box of baby diapers – swinging his little feet, eating fruit snacks, and telling me, “Mom, Penny’s the best girl I ever seen”. True that, as adults, such constantly shifting views of others might be considered borderline bi-polar, but I love that no grudge or anger ever lasts long with little folks.

I am very excited about spending my upcoming summer with a certain six of these “little folks”.