My vacation.

I have been on summer vacation with my kids and it has been...well there isn't really one word...wonderful, awful, creative, fun, exhausting, trying, messy, rewarding, hilarious, heartbreaking...

I am grateful, eternally, for the opportunity to stay home with my kids full time.  It has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  To say that I have been there for every moment, has been wonderful.  But in all honesty, it has also been pretty painful and heartbreaking as well.  I have watched them take their first steps, get on the bus for the first day of school, helped them learn to zip a zipper and measure a cup of flour.  From the extraordinary life moments, to the mundane moments of learning new skills, I have been there to celebrate with them.  But, I have also I have watched them be bullied, loose another game, not get chosen for the team, struggle to get the answer, and be laughed at.  Their heartbreaks have also been mine.

And as I realize they are all growing up, I am thinking maybe it is time for me to do the same.  So, despite the fact that I want to be here telling you all the wonderfully funny, silly, fantastic things they are doing and saying...this summer I am choosing to live each of the moments with them because it just might be my last.*

So forgive my absence for a little longer because I am busy making memories this summer instead of recording them.

* for the benefit of my mother-in-law...I am not leaving my family.  I am thinking it might be time to grow up and get a job.  Of course my kids really have been driving me crazy...even though I try hard to focus on the positive...and I might have to get a job just so that I don't go completely insane!