(Christmas morning.... they got a little coffee maker. Hee hee!)

One thing that has happened to me since becoming a mom is that I think about Time a lot.  Before having kids, I was really good at living in the moment—literally.  Like down to the absolute MOMENT.  But now I think of “moments” as being much more broad… for instance, this time of having my girls so young and sweet—not babies—but little people.  It won’t be long before we are pulled in different directions, being in activities and school and having friends.  It won’t be long before the pace of our life quickens and we aren’t spending an entire day playing pretend.  Today at mass they sang The Servant Song, which is a song I played at my good friend Alison’s wedding.  When Alison got married Anja was not even a year old and I was not yet expecting Greta.  Now Alison herself is expecting her second baby!!  It’s SO WEIRD to think of how time goes by and nothing is the same from day to day anymore.  Before kids, I had this small but very fun life… play music with lots of people, work in this store or that store… do whatever I want… and it felt like it would be like that forever.  But now I look at my kids and I think, “How are you growing up so fast?!?  How am I getting old so fast?!?”  And I try to pay attention and remember that even when Greta is throwing a temper tantrum, in the blink of an eye, she’ll be twelve.  Or sixteen.  Or thirty.  Yikes.

Anyway, there’s been a blog post going around on Facebook about “Don’t Carpe Diem” or something like that… and I read it and I liked it because it’s so, so true.  You don’t relish the tantrums—come on, NOBODY does.  You don’t savor reading The Little Engine that Could (I hate that book) for the bazillionth time in one day.  You don’t wish that the spills and messes and arguments and insisting-on-ridiculous-things would last forever.  And that’s just the kids, not including the five million things you have to do WHILE you’re settling arguments and explaining things to toddlers who don’t understand and wishing you were reading ANYTHING other than Watty Piper. But the truth is, this little tiny window of time that is so sweet and free is fleeting.  And I think something that’s helped me really live in the moment during this time is reading Amanda Blake Soule’s blog archives. I started reading them two summers ago when Greta was a baby and there was still a daily naptime, during which I could do whatever I wanted.  I got through a lot before our computer broke and since I’ve had the iPhone I’ve been reading them again, but only once in awhile.  And I don’t often read her current posts, except when Martin sometimes prints them out for me to read.  But every time I do read a current post, I’m amazed at how time has flown.  Her boys—who were toddlers/preschoolers when she started her blog, and her third baby wasn’t even born yet—are practically grownups now.  Her oldest is TEN. I’m pretty sure he was three when she started blogging.  Maybe 4.  In any case…. The change is enormous.  And it’s so neat to have those two times of the same family in my mind back to back and it really helps to make you realize, Oh!  My kids really WILL grow up… and it will happen really quickly! 

Anyway… it’s been kind of a fun little thing for me, keeping up with both eras of her blog.  (the archives are WAY better, by the way… back before she had thousands of comments per posts and many of the comments were from her mom and sisters.)  So if any of you moms of young’uns out there need a boost, you might try reading those archives and then peeking in on her current blog every once in awhile.  It’s  a funny thing.

In other news, we did go sledding yesterday up at my parents' house and even when Greta fell face-first into the snow she still wanted to keep on sledding!  It was their first time sledding adn they LOVED IT.  It was so fun to take them!  And afterward my dad made them hot cocoa and they got to watch a little bit of Beauty & the Beast--their first time watching one of the Disney movies!  Not that Anja hasn't been completely obsessed with the Disney princesses for quite some time... but she was thrilled to actually see a bit of the movie.  Anyway... I'll save my thoughts on Disney Princesses for another post.  For now, we've had a big weekend--it's bedtime!