Lessons Learned

Just thinking tonight about some of the things that I've learned that last few years that I never would have learned without my children in my life.

1- You can't imagine how something so tiny and adorable one moment could be so irritating the next.
2- Impromptu dance parties are the spice of life.
3- Adjustable waists in pants are brilliant...but they never get completely dry in the dryer.
4- Never would I think it permissible to wipe another person's nose with my hand.  But it totally is.
5- The amount of sleep I get is directly (and negatively) proportional to how early everyone wakes up the next morning.
6- You think that there's nothing worse than a sad, sick child that you want to heal immediately but can't...until they all get it and then it is definitely worse.
7- It is possible to want to desperately protect someone with your own life and still want to strangle them in the same moment.
8- The amount of time it takes my children to break something personal to me is directly related to how sentimental I feel about it.
9- I never realized how much my own parents loved me until I held my first child in my arms.
10- I don't know how I ever lived without having a little head nestled on my shoulder.  I also don't know how I'll live when that time is done.  I can't even think about it.
11- My kids can make even the most simple, mundane task absolutely exhausting.
12- It is in all likelihood possible to go literally crazy from saying the same things over & over & over & over...
13- It's easy to know what my kids size will be in the next year so buying a size up for them on the clearance rack has been the biggest money-saver ever.  (Already have Miss Em's Christmas clothes for next year).
14- When people say how important it is for women planning on being stay-at-home moms to get the best education possible because it will help them teach their children... they are exactly right.
15- I am not as patient as I thought I was.
16- I don't have to give up my life for my kids.  I can still have one of my own, too, with my own goals and plans.  It's just bigger than I planned it to be.
17- It took me a while to figure out why scriptures teach us to "become as a little child" because, honestly, sometimes they are hellions.  ('Submissive'??  He obviously never met MY kids!!)  But they are THE MOST FORGIVING little things on the planet.  I'm trying to be more like them.
18- I forget how amazing and exciting everything seemed when I was a kid.  The world seems brighter when I see that through their eyes and I remember.  (Sprinkles! Puppies! Trampolines! Snow!! The list could go on & on.)
19- Phases pass.
20- I never imagined that watching my kids all help each other unload the dishwasher would bring me such exquisite joy.

Twenty seems like a good place to end.  Plus, it's late and I still want to read for a while.  It was nice to sit here and think about the good things I've learned as a mother.  It's a crazy, upside-down, unrelenting, rewarding, exhausting job but it's the best one I've ever had.

Alert the media!

I want it known that I made doughnuts today!!!  (If you're curious I used THIS RECIPE but I swapped the strawberries for cranberries.)  I have never, in my 32 years successfully fried anything.  Ever.  In fact, I've only unsuccessfully tried 2 or 3 times.  But now I've made doughnuts.  And they're not too shabby.  I even fried some plan dough, sprinkled it with sugar and spread it with some vanilla honey butter (from some cinnamon roll thing I tried earlier in the week) and it was divine.  My whole life will now be divided in 2 sections: B.D. and A.D. (before doughnuts and after doughnuts).
I'm going to celebrate with some fried dough.