Thoughts

My brain has friends.
Its friends are thoughts.
They are practically inseparable.
Night and day, it seems like every minute there are thoughts
swimming around inside this brain of mine.

Yesterday I was sitting in the rocking chair, gazing out the window
at the trees blowing in the wind and watching the dark clouds rolling in.



Then I looked at my surroundings......
Myles was half dressed eating out of a box of crackers, there was a mountain of laundry
on the couch that needed to be folded, not to mention two baskets full in my bedroom, a hamper full (plus some) of clothes needing to be washed and there was an array of stuff
on the living room floor. Then I thought about the scene in the kitchen.
A sink full of dishes needing to be loaded into the dishwasher.




Then I looked down at this little one.


And I silently chuckled to myself and thought if only the me
of pre-kids could see this.
I used to be pretty anal about a clean house, an uncluttered house, a "no mess" house.
When I cleaned I wanted that fresh clean scent and when I vacuumed I wanted to see the lines in the carpet with no foot prints.
I know that sounds silly. I would start in the corner of the room and work my way out, and then I didn't want anyone setting foot in it for a while just so I could bask in the vision of my carpet full of vacuum lines but not footprints.
And the pre-kid me thought that would certainly never change even when knew I would be a mom someday.
Well, I am happy to say that I have changed.
So as I rocked my wee one to sleep yesterday afternoon,



I thought back to a poem I used to read every time
I would go over to my best friend's house.

It goes something like this......

I hope that my child, looking back on today

will remember a mother who had time to play.

Because children grow up while you are not looking

there are years ahead for cleaning and cooking.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery blissfully rocking.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due.

The shopping isn't done and there is nothing for stew.

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait til tomorrow.

For children grow up I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet now cobwebs and dust go to sleep

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

So, while I still like a clean, as in disinfected, house

I know that the kids have clean clothes to wear, and that

as long as there are some clean dishes in the cupboard

the dirty ones can sit and wait til all my little ones are fast asleep.

I would rather have my kids remember the time I spent with them,

then the fact that we had a pristine, nothing out of place house.

How sad it would have been for me had I not changed. Thinking about it, I am sure I would have thought, once my kids were grown and gone, that I would give anything to see little foot prints in my carpet rather than vacuum lines.

Forgive my ramblings, but I just thought I'd like to share some of the

thoughts that swim around in my head.