Fitting It All In

Some of my family members who have come to visit us are amazed at how much our family does. To those who aren't accustomed to the pace, it is exhausting. But here's my deal:

My girls are only their current age for 365 days. I will be working for approximately 234 of those days, which leaves 131 days a year to spend time with them. During that 131 days I have to fit in chores, time with friends, with family, and sleep. Come summer time, when the days are long and the weather beautiful, I want to squeeze as much in as I can.

So yes, I am up early in the morning on days I could sleep in, getting in a few miles on inline skates, putting a load of laundry in or catching up on dishes. I'll spend my evenings doing something similar to what I'm doing now -- writing, uploading photos, reading or watching TV. And I'll spend my days squeezing every moment in that I can with my family.

I'll sleep come winter. Or our girls' high school years. But I am going to catch every smile, every hug, every joyous moment I can while they want to be with their mom. Because some day sooner than I would like, they will be calling their friends and making arrangements to go out Friday nights, catch a movie, go on a (gulp) double date, or other things. It won't be cool to be with mom and dad.

I got a small glimpse of this on Saturday as we planned to go on a biking outing to Hopkins, to eat lunch at Pizza Luce and bike back. We were getting the bikes out, pumping up tires and finding helmets that hadn't been used since the prior year. Lindsey pulled out her helmet and tried to put it on. She eventually got it on, but it clearly was a tight fit and she has pretty much outgrown it.

Her helmet was embarrassing, she said, since it had Disney princesses on it. I said, "What?! Aren't you my little princess? Don't tell me you've outgrown princesses already!" and I hugged her, thinking that we went to DisneyWorld not even 12 months ago.

She pushed me away and said, "Mommmm!" and looked around, in case one of her friends saw her. "I am too old for princesses." And then she adds, "I'm growing up, you know."

I know, honey, all too well.