BABIES DON’T KEEP
Hey sweet friends, I hope you’ve had a good week! I’m sharing something a bit different tonight, simply because I felt like I needed to. As we approach Caleb’s one year birthday, I can’t help but feel like I just had him yesterday. How did it go by so fast? Where did the time go?
The following post was written by my Mom. I have told you before that she shares her heart with our church ladies group each week on Facebook, and every once in a while I feel like her words were meant just for me.
I know this post has nothing to do with decorating or DIY’s, but I felt compelled to share it tonight. Maybe there’s another momma out there that needs to read it, just like I needed to.
They had this fairytale flair of cleaning.
These ‘littles’ I called my own.
“Don’t come up yet” they’d yell down the stairs.
I’d smile knowingly.
And when everything was clean and I was given the okay, the door would be flung open, magical music would be playing and proud smiles would be displayed.
The music got me every time.
It was as if they turned ‘cleaning their bedrooms’ into a Walt Disney production, with all the dramatic effects.
Looking back, cleaning was a household word.
Mom (I) was a clean freak.
Every day had its chore and every thing had its place.
Living in a parsonage, the worry over appearances took over the ease of letting life happen and loving it.
Too often.
Would anything life changing have happened if I had let the dusting go one more week?
If I had allowed toys to lay around an extra day?
If the pillows weren’t perfect on the couch and the dishes weren’t all washed?
Here I sit 25 years later.
The same house. The same rooms.
Something life changing did happen. I put down the mop and my high expectations for the Pinterest perfect house and looked around.
The same rooms~now empty.
No more toys.
No more dramatic entrances into fairytale bedrooms.
No more pillows strewn all over the floor.
Life changed.
My kids grew up.
The vacuuming. The mopping.
The dusting. The chores.
It’s all still here.
My kids are not.
Tidying up can be done tomorrow.
Even if your children are “posing” in it, that picture or story for Instagram can wait.
Your kids cannot.
Tomorrow and the next day and then 25 years later you can take all the pictures in the world.
But the little hands will no longer be tugging.
The little feet will no longer be running.
The little laughter will no longer be ringing in your ears.
The chores will wait.
Life will not.
It will continue to move, even as your walls stand still around you.
So build a fort in the living room.
Have a pillow fight in the den.
Play Barbies in the bedroom.
Smile at the dishes in the sink.
Laugh at the dust that will be there tomorrow~
And love until it aches.
Love on those babies until it aches.
Because the cleaning and dusting and dishes will all still be here tomorrow…
But your babies won’t. 💕
Thanks for reading sweet friends! If this post touched your heart, let me know in the comments below! Here’s a little look down memory lane…oh how I miss those tiny little fingers and toes…
PIN IT FOR LATER
This brought me to tears. Such a needed reminder
It did the same for me. Thank you so much for reading and commenting! 🙂
Great post you are so wise!
Yes time goes so quickly! I have grandkids your age. In some ways I would like to do it over.
Blessings to you and your seeet family
Thank you for reading Brenda! It means so very much 🙂
Your mom was so right. I’m the proud mother of a daughter who is raising her children to do all these things, right down to the fort in the living room.
I wished I had been as wise at her age but back then it was all about the clean house. Young women today have it all over on us.
Ohh thank you so much Rebecca for visiting my blog and telling me that. I’m so thankful for my mom and her constant reminders of what is most important!
Such a great reminder! Thank you Andrea! I am going to stop and hug my kiddos!
Oh Monika thank you for reading! We all need this reminder!! 🙂