Smelling the roses

It's been a busy past few days (which explains my lack in blog posts). When Bradley woke up Friday he had a rash/possible poison ivy all over his face and a swollen eye. Scott wound up taking him into the doctor while I got ready to go to my own appt,  clipped a couple hundred box tops, went straight to Bradley's school for a valentines party, get the class box top collection in, do the parent jump rope for heart competition during Brads PE, get my girls, come home to eat and get ready for baseball practice, and then drop the kids off at the babysitting club (tell you more about that later) after baseball , and finally Scott and I went out on a date for Valentines day. We are actually not really ones to go out on Vday, I am just not a huge fan of overcrowded restaurants and fighting the crowds. Two friends of mine girls have a babysitting club and it something that my kids love to go to so with sitters lined up we jumped on the chance to go out. These girls who put together this club are the best babysitters anyone could ask for (and their moms for letting everyone invade their homes :). They set up different stations with the kids, play with them, do plays, dress up, snacks, ect. To top it off they only charge 5$ a kid for 3 hours, you just can't beat it! Not to mention my kids love them, we are very blessed with great people in our lives. So as the weekend progressed it stayed just as busy. I have found that as my kids get older this is becoming the norm. I had all 3 of my kids in 3 and a half years so I spent years of my life feeding kids, changing diapers, washing bottles, lugging around a car seat with a baby in it, all while having one or more kid hanging on me. As I am venturing out of that phase in life and my children are growing older and more independent I am just realizing how fast their lives are flashing before my eyes. I am making a conscience effort each day to stop and smell the roses. I know a lot of my friends have heard the story of the older lady who talks about the handprints. How we spend all this time cleaning and keeping up with our homes to turn around the next second and have dirty handprints over what we just cleaned. How one day there will be no more handprints to clean. How we shouldn't let these handprints anger us but to enjoy them. This is something I have personally struggled with, letting go. I will admit, I'm a clean freak. Almost borderline OCD (just ask anyone who's walked on my clean floors with shoes on :). This is something that I have had to learn to let go of a little bit. It's just a house and honestly as hard as I try it's going to be back dirty in a day or two anyways. There will come a day that I will have no one left to clean up after. I am trying to just worry about today, enjoy what I have, prioritize what's important. When I think  any farther than that it becomes overwhelming. If you share this struggle with me try and take a step back. Reorganize your life with the things that matter. Time is the most valuable thing we have. It can not be given back or bought. It's something that some would trade their soul for. I know this is all easier said than done, but I promise you it is possible. Enjoy what you have for none of us are promised tomorrow.