We took a swing on the hammock....

I became a stay at home Mom almost a year ago. It's been an amazing, fun, but fast year. My baby is nearly 9 months, the middle child is 4 1/2 and my oldest is 7ish. When did all of this happen? I've had a really hard time with The Instigator turning 7 this year for some odd reason. Which always makes me realize how old the other two are as well. So it got me thinking, did I use this year wisely? I'm not sure that I honestly did. Man, how honest is that. Granted, I did have a baby and she wasn't the easiest until 5/6 months old. She was very time consuming, as most babies are, but add a side of medical issues and voila, time.gone. As I started to discuss Pre-K with The Banker, it occurred to me that although I really want her to go off to school next year, socialize, make friends, learn, play, etc, I would miss her! I have just one more precious year with her due to the way her birthday falls and I need to make the most of it.

We've all seen that email or Facebook message that has gone around. You know the one. The one to make you feel guiltier than a prostitute in church. The one that is CLEARLY a man writing "hey mom, I see you at the park on your phone" basically while her kids are run amuck. I mean, come on. Perhaps it was an emergency? Perhaps her husband was calling? Perhaps she was waiting on an important phone call from the pediatrician on the bazillionth test she's run on her poor baby? I don't know what she was doing, but she was on her phone and this "person" was pointing out how quickly her kids will grow up before her eyes while she's doing so. So regardless of the reason I'm on my phone, or ipad, or other device we all cannot live with out, I felt an overwhelming feeling of guilt reading to stupid article. So I decided I have got to use my time wisely.

Sophia has been begging to swing on the hammock. Recently I took her out and we swung and swung and swung to give Rylee some peace while doing homework. She thought it was the best thing since Team Umizoomi. Following that she asked daily and I always, always, had an excuse. It's too wet. It's too hot. The baby is awake. Yep, I was that Mom. The one feeling guilty about the darn phone and still not doing a thing about it. So, one morning we woke up, the hammock and grass were soaking wet, it was really hot and sunny following a rain which then meant humidity and we were still in our jammies. And guess what I did. We swung on the hammock! I took my phone only to snap a fun pic then tucked it away. We talked about clouds and school, shoot we even discussed the dog poop in the grass, but I had a blast. We were soaking wet when we got up and I didn't care at all. I realized, in this world of Pinterest Moms who appear to look like June Cleaver, I pin and pin and never do. So now is the time. To swing on the hammock, finally do all those crafts I pin then forget about, cook some dinners with them and let them make a mess (Ok so I will work on letting them make a mess) and spend the quality time that everyone says "flies by". I hope as school is getting out that you will join me. And join me because you want to, not because someone made you feel guilty or you're trying to outdo the Pinterest Mom who just pinned some outlandish crafty crapola that she did. Have fun!!