Duly noted

Last Friday, as the wedding rehearsal was wrapping up, the bride's great-aunt came over to talk to me. She complimented Bella for being so well-behaved and said that Bubba is adorable. Then she said something that has resonated with me ever since. She said, "Just treasure and enjoy your children, because they grow up so fast. It might seem like forever, but in reality it won't be too long before you find yourself not sitting in the third row for the flower girl, but sitting in the second row as the mother of the bride". Then she pointed one row ahead of me to my friend's mother, who was dabbing at her tears with a tissue and nodding in agreement.

I know they grow fast - time has zipped by as Bella has gotten older, and it feels like it goes by twice as fast with Bubba. But that really made me think, about a lot of things. About how I maybe need to change some habits relating to my own health, so hopefully I can be around to be that teary-eyed mother of the bride. And about how I need to worry less about the small details and pay more attention to enjoying my kids, and to spending time doing fun things with them.

Instead of hanging around the house in our free time so I can get the laundry finished, maybe I need to let the laundry wait. Laundry will keep (albeit probably in a smelly way), but children won't - they just insist on getting older and bigger. So I need to strike while the iron is hot, and spend some quality time with my children while they still want to spend time with me, before they get to be too cool to hang out with dorky old mom.

It's not like this is some new, earth-shattering revelation - everyone knows kids grow-up fast, but I guess every now and then I need a gentle reminder - to slow down, to smell the roses, and let my kids be kids and enjoy them. Gotcha.