The Way They Were & The Way They Are

Yes, I know that the 4th of July was a week ago already! Should I have taken down my decorations by now? Time just seems to be moving by a little too quickly for my liking, so I think I am trying to stretch it out some by letting those banners, flags, and other red, white, and blue baubles hang around a little longer than they probably should. I thought about putting everything away today and then these little tags caught my eye.

                                 

The little pictures are from a sheet of scrapbook paper that I had gotten years ago. I bought it because the images so closely resembled my three children when they were young. Everything from the "flat top" hair cut and overalls on the little boy, to the hairstyles and dresses of the little girls was almost as if my children had posed for the sketches. My son and younger daughter both had red hair and my middle daugher's hair was brunette and usually this style! It was just such a crazy coincidence to find three images on one sheet that had such a striking resemblence. (And there were only three children on the sheet, the other images were flags, stars, the Liberty Bell, etc.)

Of course now, my children are all grown up. Middle child, whom I refer to as "Daughter-mama", and her husband celebrated their third wedding anniversary in February. They are now expecting their own little one in September. The little boy with the flat-top and overalls,whom I refer to as "Sonny Boy" has set a wedding date with his beautiful fiance "Fiona" for late February. And that sweet strawberry blonde baby girl of the family has been living and working in Califonia for over two years now. I miss them living at home. I miss prodding them to take a shower at night and hurry to bed.  I miss tucking them in, listening to prayers and falling in bed myself, exhausted from all their shenanigans during the day. I miss hearing them tip toeing into each others rooms with pillows and blankets in tow to camp out at the foot of one another's beds after they think I am asleep. I miss waking up in the morning and helping them drag everything back into their own rooms pretending to be just a little peeved about the inconvenience! I knew at the time, that we had something very special and I appreciated  those days as they happened.  I believe we made the most out of those days. Even so, I never could have imagined how much it would tug at my heart to "remember" and to miss them being under our roof.

Don't get me wrong, I have loved every age and every stage, (well, maybe not quite EVERY stage). 
We still have wonderful family times and I reallize that there is so much more to look forward to. So, I am not as sad in my reminiscing as these words might sound. I am just sentimental enough today, however, to keep myself from taking down these little picture tags. Tomorrow will be soon enough!

Here we are this last 4th of July. We are missing Cali-girl....but she will be visiting soon!

Thanks for visiting!