Wednesday, August 19, 2015

......bloom where you are today.......

.....I have always loved big adventures with my children. Some of my greatest memories of NYC when we just had three little ones, was corralling together a bunch of neighbors and we'd go grand.....We'd throw all of our gear in our double strollers, strap on back packs, load our real cameras to get awesome photos and we were off.....most people looked at us as if we were crazy......usually it was a minimum of 5 children, sometimes more......that number of little people sure seemed like a lot to us back then......today, I had 6 children in my house for several hours and I hardly batted an eye........until I found glue all over my brand new furniture......
....but those NYC adventures......
......we'd bounce our strollers down subway stairs, push ourselves onto trains and travel to far away places on the island.....we explored old bridges and tunnels, we traveled to neighboring boroughs, we toured museums like visitors, and we hit the top rated playgrounds in NYC no matter where they were.......we showed our children Fleet Week, Lady Liberty and every ferry ride around the island that was possible......all of those adventures were hard, but at the end of the night I was so, so full with gratitude and adventure......
....today was not crazy adventurous like the NYC days, but it was an amazing adventure with my little tribe......stress of our fall schedule and back to school to do lists are starting to nip at me.....my Beachbody business is incredibly busy right now......but all I can think about is that I don't have much of this summer left with my children......in a week and half, this summer will be over and as so many mamas know, there are a lot of mixed emotions that go with that......
.....so we packed up and drove to the fruit fields......we picked apples and peaches and fed a ton of dirty animals at the petting zoo.....we had the entire field of fruit trees to ourselves......Mae sat in the grass and studied each of the many apples she devoured.......Elsie and I found trees that had the best hidden fruit......Callie and I held hands in the shade.......Brody begged for more quarters and I gladly obliged just so I could hear him giggle again when the llama or the goat licked his hand full of corn meal......it was a perfect day......there were beautiful moments weaved in between the girls cat fighting and Brody crying over the heat; all while I changed a dirty diaper on my lap, balancing on one leg in the parking lot......I would do these types of days that require a lot of effort any day of the week, because as my children get older, they get harder to plan......and that has me longing back to those NYC days when we complained about how hard it was to have small children in the city......
.....savor where you are because some day, you will wish you were right back where you are today.......