Please excuse the mess, the children are making memories

We are all sick today. Well, most of us are sick. I started to get a cold on Friday. Alanna is going on 3 weeks with a cold that gets worse every day - finally got antibiotics for her this morning. Julian threw up in Primary 2 weeks ago and then got this nasty cold and Tennyson is on the last round of croup.

She is still smiley though. And I love it. It's so hard to get her to laugh! She will grin and coo and blow raspberries but laughing takes some serious dedication, and even then all we get is a few chuckles. I'm so curious to know what she thinks while we make silly faces and sounds to get her to laugh.

My mother sent me an email that she received from a friend of hers that had seen a picture saying "Please excuse the mess, the children are making memories". I think I need to cross-stitch it and hang it on my front door. I've been thinking about this exact topic for a while. It's important to me that my house is clean and that my children help me make it that way, but having a spotless house 24/7 can't be my hobby.

JD walked out of our room the other day getting ready for work. It was 8:30 AM and my kids were in their underwear covered in paint in the kitchen. I had walked into my Living Room about 15 minutes before that to them painting on the Living Room floor, on paper, but still. Instead of yelling at them about what they thought they were doing by getting out the paints so early in the day, I simply moved them to the kitchen (it's not like we were going anywhere anyway). They painted for about 30 minutes and then declared they were done. Tennyson tried to rinse his hands in the kitchen sink while getting paint on the cupboards, sink, faucet and chair. But paint washes away. So it's ok. Memories hopefully won't.

JD came home another day to paper all over the floor. We were busy making heart garlands to hang for Valentines Day.

Friends have come over to train tracks on the floor and little scraps of paper left over from making Valentines and stained glass hearts and cookies and so many other things. Some days I get so frustrated - I wish I could just clean it and then it would stay clean. But - I want to live my life in a way that my children feel like I have time for them - that I MAKE time for them.

I forgot Alanna's pacifier today - which normally isn't a big deal. Except we went out to lunch with some of my Aunts, Uncles & Cousins. Alanna wanted to eat, but it was too hot under the blanket and without the blanket the atmosphere was too loud and distracting. She was upset. She sucked on my finger instead. When we got in the car to come home she was upset (again: hot, tired, hungry, sick). Julian let her suck on his finger. He was SO excited that he calmed her down and that she relaxed.

It's the little things in life that make a difference. But if you are going to fast, you'll miss the little things. I really hope that I can remember to take it slow. They are only little once - and I want so desperately to be part of their memories, a big part.