I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World

We were talking over lettuce wraps and sweet tea at Mongolian BBQ. It was just Joe and I which was a nice birthday surprise from my mom.

So, as the kids were enjoying some grandma time Joe and I were enjoying some good conversation. As we sat there and talked about all sorts of things, mostly parenting, I was taking note of the eighties tunes quietly playing overhead.

I love eighties music. (Right now my sister Emily is rolling her eyes and throwing up in her mouth a little bit...she's not a fan of the eighties music...)Like, it's probably my favorite, that and country. I never ever listen to either of those genres anymore though. It's all KLOVE all the time around here. The contemporary christian music station we jam to as we drive around town. I love it. I especially love hearing my kids sing along to worship and praise songs. Probably the sweetest thing my ears have ever heard.

But last night it was nice to hear familiar songs from my childhood. Songs that took me back to favorite memories of my mom and dancing in our teeny living room together, songs that brought back precious memories of my dad, songs that had special meaning in significant relationships. And songs that, as I listened, began to have new meaning. Like I heard them through different ears and for the very first time. Songs that I've heard a thousand times but for some reason brought tears to my eyes as I thought of them in a new way.

"I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World" by Ronnie Milsap did just that. It had a whole different meaning to me all of a sudden. That song made me think about things like countless sleepless nights. Nights where I noticed distant train whistles at two in the morning, certainly something I wouldn't have noticed before rocking a hungry baby in the stillness of the night.

It made me think about how difficult it can be now to just drop everything and go out to lunch with a friend or make a trip to the mall. How it's hard to do anything spur of the moment.

How I used to keep my house spotless. I even had the ability to have something for years and years before it broke. Now chubby, sticky fingers move pretty fast and have superhuman strength as they toss the remote across the room, or in my case, the mouse that just took a bad bounce onto a linoleum floor and split into two pieces. Yeah, that never happened before kids.

And neither did about a million other scenarios.

But ya know what?

I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World...

No mama would. We love our kids no matter what. Those are the things we know we will someday look back on and laugh. It bonds us to all the other mommies out there when we meet at play group and try to "one up" each other with our "Oh yeah, well guess what my little one flushed down the toilet" stories.

Right now I can't really imagine a less chaotic life. One that doesn't require prying three DVDs out of the DVD player or breaking up fights over who gets the first slice of cake or going through homework folders and making sure my big boy reads at least twenty minutes every night. What in the world will I do when I only have to do laundry once a week?  What will I do when my days don't require two, three or four cups of coffee??

I know what. I will miss it. I will miss these days. I will think back and remember how very challenging they were and wonder how I made it through. I will wish I had little people clinging to my leg and begging to play kitchen.

So, for now, I will soak up every single second. I will be more patient, I will stop and play when they ask me to, I will refrain from rolling my eyes and muttering under my breath when I walk into a room strewn with toys. All too soon the toy room will transition into something else, maybe a room with a couch that doesn't have peanut butter marks or hot wheels under cushions. Too soon.

Every soaked floor from a crazed bath, every Lego I've stepped on in the middle of the night, every girls night out I've missed well, it's okay because this kid thing?  I agree with Ronnie, I wouldn't have missed it for the world...

Happy Monday out there. Go hug your little people :)

XOXO,
Angie