I really, really love my job as a homemaker. I recently had to fill out a form and it asked me for my occupation. I immediately circled "Homemaker". I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a wonderful mom who taught me so much and loved me. Not until you have children do you realize how much your parents really love you. It is an amazing thing how much love our hearts can hold for our children. I had David take this picture of me when we went to the lake last week. I love this picture because it shows who I am, my happiness with my children (in the background playing on a purple float) and my David. I feel so blessed to be a mom, more specifically, Summer and Forrest's mom. I have always known what an amazing gift being a mother is. I feel blessed that I understand that even though somedays seem monotonous, they are not meaningless. As mind numbing as unloading the dishwasher AGAIN can be or breaking up a fight, I still get the bigger picture. There really is nothing more important that I could be doing right now than raising our kids. Yes, I get burned out. In fact, David texted the other day and I was really quiet... he said, "Hey, where are you?" I didn't know if I should start laughing or crying but I texted back, "I am sitting in our garage on the floor... I needed a break and I am drinking a Coke". Yes, I have days that seem like they last for months but when I look at the kids asleep in their little beds, they are growing up too quickly! I feel blessed that I can stay at home with them and hug them and hold them tight when they are sad or happy. There is an amazing essay on motherhood from the author, Anna Quindlen, which I read recently. This quote from the essay has been on my mind lately.
The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this (being a mom). I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of my children sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less".
I try to whisper in my kids' ears throughout the day, "I love being your mommy". I said it to Summer the other night as I was putting her to bed. I thought she was asleep. She signed back to me, "I love being your Summer". Those are the moments that I will hold on to forever. That is what being a mom is all about. I adore these sweet little angels that I was given to care for. I dreamed that I would be their mom from the day they were born.
Today is my 33rd birthday. We woke up to sunshine after the rain last night which was the best gift ever. I love the sunshine. David and Forrest are out running errands and Summer begged me to go outside with her this morning before taking her to school. The start to a great day for sure.
I took these pictures of my little boy this morning. I couldn't find him in the house so I looked out back and he was just like this... only in shorts and covered in sand from head to toe. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Mom, I'm making tracks". He was climbing the sand in our backyard and inspecting the car tracks he had made. I LOVE this little boy.
Summer's very favorite book is called Fancy Nancy. She LOVES it. She asks me to read it every day and refers to Nancy as if she is a real person. Nancy is Summer's personal heroin. If Summer had a personal motto, it would be, "What would Fancy Nancy do". Nancy is a little girl who loves all things "fancy". Some things Summer has learned from this book: gold is fancier than yellow, patent leather is fancier than regular leather, Nancy gets everything with sprinkles on top because it is well, just fancier! Dresses are fancier than pants and the more bows in your hair the better. Summer frequently tries to get me to put matching bows in my hair to look fancier when we leave the house. Her favorite thing to do is to play dress up and to dance. We turn on the computer in the family room and crank up the music.
Forrest and Summer spent a lot of their day on a boogie board when we went to the beach this weekend. 
We have been spending a lot of time on the lake this summer. I absolutely love it. It is so quiet. Summer and Forrest love spending time on the sunfish with their daddy. When they are not sailing, they played for hours in the sand with their friends and never once told me they were bored. That is heaven. How cute are these two little sailors without a care in the world? Forrest comes across looking so serious in this picture but he is quite the opposite in "real life". He is really funny. Very talkative and really animated. The kids have a quite busy schedule each time we go to the lake... which includes walking back and forth on the pier, jumping into the water from the sailboat "toy boat" over and over again, oyster collecting, waving to the boat every time it passes by and of course the frequent runs to the clubhouse kitchen for treats. This is what summer is all about.
