Marjorie Hinkley has a fantastic quote:
"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny spots car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed some one's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
And that is how I felt this evening when I pulled into my drive-way in my filthy mini-van. I had four kids in tow, all wearing wet swimsuits. We spent our last official day of summer at the pool with Ashley and her kids and of course we stayed until the bitter end. We picked up chick-fil-a and ate it in the car on the way home.
Every year at this time, I mourn the end of summer. I am a Summer girl. I live for warm weather, flip flops, bike rides, hikes and long days at the pool. And we squeezed the life out of this summer. We went non-stop every day. Swimming lessons, hikes, Seven Peaks, parades, rodeos, amusement parks, birthday parties, t-ball games, bike rides, sports camps, you name it--we did it.
Summer makes me feel like an awesome mom. I don't say this to brag. You see, I am not that mom that does cute Back to School themed dinners for my kids. I don't put notes in their lunches, Heck! I don't even wake up with them most mornings before school. But I am great at taking them to do fun adventures and I'm not afraid to get my hair wet!
I will never get tired of Summer. I will never be ready for school to start. I will never welcome the routines and homework and freezing cold temperatures.
But at least I have no regrets from this summer. Now who wants to come deep clean my mini-van?
4 comments:
How satisfying to know you wrung out every last drop of summer. This is the first year I really didn't do much summer stuff since Landon is no longer interested in going to the pool and Whitney is old enough to get dropped off with a friend. It was liberating for me but weird too and meant I spent a lot of time indoors this summer.
I like the girl photobombing your first pic of the kids... classic pool noodle moment.
I'm a summer girl, too... and I'm sad that it's over!
You know, quite honestly I think that not getting up iwth your kids during the school year is, perhaps inadvertently, another example of good mothering. You are teaching your kids independence. Getting themselves up and ready and out the door is awesome for them. And then you do all the fun stuff in the summer. I would feel amazing about my parenting if I could sleep in and my kids could do all that. Andrew used to, but not anymore and no one else could (bc they are little) but it is my goal that when they are older they can do it. I think you are an amazing mother and your kids are super lucky. I feel the same way about summer. I am never ready for it to end.
I love summer, too! You are an inspiration...I think this newborn is making me feel as though I'll never have any energy again, but I hope that when the girls are older I will have the energy to be as fun as mom as you!
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