Ten Minute Tuesday

Rachel over at Testosterhome is sponsoring Ten Minute Tuesday. Visit her, write for ten minutes, and leave a link in her combox.


I came home a little after nine after attending a women's meeting. I nearly texted Dave telling him not to put the little people to bed until I was home. I put the littles to bed six nights out of seven. Multiply that by their average age (which would be four) and that number by fifty-two weeks and you end up with a lot of diaper changing and tooth brushing, alot of Curious George and Caps For Sale and Bible Stories for Little Children, a lot of "God bless the whole crew" and a lot of Hail Marys.

But it doesn't matter if I've done it for years or that I do it all the time. I still like to do it.

The meeting got busy. I wasn't able to text Dave, but I arrived home and found the little people in bed, but still awake.

"Mama," Ainsley squealed.

Dave was sitting her bed. "Do you want Mama or Daddy," he asked her.

"Mama," she said emphatically, throwing back the covers. "Here's your spot."

And so I laid down next to her for a few minutes.

Over at In the Heart of My Home, Elizabeth is talking about motherhood. Readers are comparing life with older children to life with the little ones. It makes for good reading.

We have a bit of a split family. Tim and Kolbe, 15 and 11, make up the older set, and John and Ainsley, 5 and 3, are the littles. It should come as no surprise to me or to anyone else on planet Earth that teenagers bring a few challenging behaviors into the house. Along with the deeper voice and the occasional breakout come attitudes and agendas, boatloads of homework and interesting weekend plans, new tastes in music and and colorful words that may or may not be to your liking.

And suddenly you think back to the day you had all littles, and you remember all those more expereinced mothers who said, "These are the easy years!" Though you in your sleep-deprived state might have bristled at her words, you now think she may have had a point.

I certainly am far more aware of how fast it all goes. John jumped out of the van the other day and stopped in his tracks to watch an ant carrying a crumb over a blade of grass. He was mesmerized.

I love this.

I watched him dress in a Batman cape and go out to tthe sand box and to build something or other.

I love this.

Ainsley threw back her covers last night and said, "Here's your spot."

I love this.

I, of course, love my big boys. I appreciating their budding intellects. I enjoy watching the way they care for their little brother and sister. I am sometimes caught off guard by the big questions they're pondering.


So that's a tad more than ten minutes and wholly unedited (though I'm going to add a link to Elizabeth's site so that you can catch what other mothers are thinking and saying).