One evening last week, my newly married sister called to chat. She filled me in on her life and activities while I scurried around the house picking up toys, folding clothes and putting away dinner. She was asking about destination ideas for their anniversary (she's a planner) and that lead to a conversation with me reminiscing about the first seven years of my marriage. (Let's call them the childless years.) Oh, those childless years! Steven and I were on the go! We camped, hiked, traveled and dinned. Boy did we blow some MAJOR money on food and fun. It’s those major activities that I remember so well, but what about the daily life stuff? I found myself saying to my sister “I'm not sure what I did in the evenings before we had kids!” Then I remembered: MOVIES. If there was a new release we would have seen it and most “normal” weekends were spent enjoying dinner and a movie. So I adamantly told her “Watch movies while you can because before you know it, you'll be picking up toys every evening wondering what you once did with your free time.”
That conversation has been on my mind this week.
Working from home full time, I’m here with the girls most days, but I’m working, so I ache to have FUN with them in the evenings. After a grocery store run I pulled up in front of the house and asked Marin “what would you like to do together, that’s FUN?” She contemplated this and to my surprise she asked to make a cake. That request meant that we’d have to return to the store for the ingredients, (with a sleeping baby) but I was so determined to spend a fun evening together, we did just that. Leaving the store for the second time, Marin carried a shopping bag filled with a boxed cake mix, pink icing and sprinkles. For the next hour and a half I walked her through the steps of making cupcakes. We turned the oven to 350 degrees, placed cupcake liners in the cupcake pan, measured out a cup of water and a third cup of oil. She was fascinated and excited about each step and I was having a blast watching her learn. Her enthusiasm about mixing batter, joy from licking the spoon and curiosity with the rising cupcake batter was HANDS DOWN better than any new release movie I watched during the “childless years.”
Watching a new release is still a treat I enjoy today, but investing time in the nurturing of my child or any other human for that matter is an investment with a lasting return.
That made me cry in a sweet way, remembering all the fun times I had with you and all the children. I'm still enjoying it. Love ya, Mom
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