One of the things I struggle most with being a mother is watching my children grow up. Yes, some days they are maddening and you are wishing them off to college. Or perhaps you are at wit's end and you wish your eldest could just get her license already because, frankly, you've been the chauffeur (chef, maid, nurse, doctor, psychiatrist, repairman, personal shopper, etc) for nearly 13 years and you've had neither a raise nor a promotion and you're starting to get a bit bored. Sometimes you wish the years would just hurry up already. You're over your head and you're having a hard time staying afloat. You nearly missed your 5 year old's physical. You've been meaning to call the dentist. The eye doctor. The chiropractor. You've been meaning to mop the floors. You've been meaning to call your neighbor down the street to check in on her. To congratulate a friend who just learned at 40 that oops she's pregnant. To get that recipe to Eloise. To thank Amanda for dinner. To thank Celeste for the hand-me-downs. To drive the baby toys to Goodwill. To go to the dry cleaners. To shorten your pants. There's simply not enough time in the day. Sneakers are forgotten and you need to deliver them like 5 minutes ago, Mom! Nevermind you are in a meeting twenty minutes away. Dinners have to be home made and fresh. Every day. Kids have to get to soccer play dates parties school... Someone's coming to look at the house. In twenty minutes. You do what you can to tidy everything. The kids can't put the dishes in the dishwasher. The kids can't wipe the darned toothpaste from the sink. Can't hang up towels. Lift the toilet seat. Find the hamper. So you rush around as best you can and hope to God that no one dares to open the front hall closet and if they do it won't be good... call an ambulance... quick! And you have a conference to attend and you must pack and get your ducks in a row and as you're getting your car filled the school calls. Your youngest threw up. Come. Come now! And so now you must pass on the conference. And you're cleaning up your child and suddenly you remember what you forgot to send in with him on the first day of school. A spare change of clothes! So you wrap him in the blanket in the car and he throws up all over it and you have to figure out how you are going to get the other two in the car without having them throw up as well in 24 hours. Nevermind they have sports to get to. Damn, you missed your yearly gynecologist appointment that took 8 months to get. You really want a glass of wine. You really want a chauffeur, maid, nurse, doctor, psychiatrist, repairman, chiropractor, masseuse... but a glass of wine will do. But it's only 3:30.
By the time you get home your little one is passed out and looks so young. You place him on the couch and bundle him in blankets and keep watch. You never once let your eyes off of him. And yet somehow you know that it's 5:00 and you can get that glass of Pinot Noir. You only leave his side once. You return. You remember when he was a baby and how simple everything seemed back then. Suddenly you don't want to rush ahead. Suddenly you want to turn back the clocks. You want all your babies to be babies again. (Oh how we forget!) And you are sad and tearful and you miss their youth terribly. And as you sit on the couch stroking the forehead of your sick child the reels that are your memory start turning, bringing you to a better place and time. As you watch the movie that is your life you wish you could take one of those picture perfect moments and freeze them.
And do you know what? You can!
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| image courtesy Better Wallpaper Co |
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| courtesy Better Wallpaper Co |
Aren't these brilliant?! You can create your own personal wallpaper and capture those perfect moments and cherish them every day! This clever idea comes to us from Better Wallpaper Co in the UK. Visit their website for more information and wonderful ideas.
Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us -- Oscar Wilde