Tomorrow the lazy days of summer come to an end. No more late nights, sleeping in, beach or pool days. The 1st day of school is always bitter sweet. On one hand, I am looking forward to being back on a routine and a house that stays clean longer than 2.1 seconds. On the other hand, back to school means my kids are another year older, a step closer to being teenagers and then adults (I can’t!). My goodness, time is just going too fast! There was a time when I longed for these days.

Having 4 kids in 5 years was not easy.  It was exhausting and I remember thinking how awesome it would be when they were all in school. Now that day is here. I often wonder if I cherished those days enough.  Did I cuddle them enough? Did I love on them enough? Did I let myself enjoy those hard baby years? In the moment, it was so overwhelming but now I feel we are in turbo time and I am desperate to slow it down. I’ve been a mom for 13 years now. With those years comes the knowledge that time is a thief and ONE day I will look back and wonder where the time went. For that reason, I have been trying really hard lately to be present. To not get frustrated (deep breaths) when my 10 year old daughter who was supposed to be asleep an HOUR ago asks me to sing her a song. I know one day she will no longer ask and so for now, I will go upstairs and sing her a song. I will cherish those moments. I will tuck them in at night. I will hug them as they head to school (eye rolls and grunts by certain older children). I will be excited to hear about their day when they return. I will be present and cherish my time with them. As one of my daughter’s middle school teachers said in an email today: We only have them for 18 summers (eek!) That’s not long enough! I intend to make those years count!