great joy

okay, so i know i just posted about how awesome it is to have a big, huge, chaotic, wild, loud family.

and it is.

i don't take back one single word.

but....

this space was clean three minutes ago.

three minutes!  

you guys.

everyone tells me to enjoy these days.

that i will miss the mess when they are gone.

truth:  i will miss THEM.

i will miss these PEOPLE.

i will miss tiny voices and little bodies.

i will miss they way they smell after a bath and the way they giggle when I tickle them.

i will miss living room dance parties and big bear hugs.

i will miss love notes and enough coloring book pages to wall paper the house.

but, i can guarantee with 100% certainty that i will NOT miss the peanut butter that is smeared all over the back of my couch.  who needs a napkin?  not my kids.  furniture upholstery works juuuuuuuuust fine, yo.

as i'm lamenting the state of my home, gnashing my teeth and scrubbing the couch, there is one thought, just one, in the midst of it all that brings me great joy.

 it is the thought of them being 32 years old, (which will make me 64...the prime of my life!  i am planning to have heaps of energy at this point) and walking into their homes, throwing my sweatshirt on the floor, leaving trash all over their living rooms, stuffing wrappers between their couch cushions, leaving pee in their toilets, smearing my snot across their patio doors, jumping on their beds and leaving the interior of their cars looking like a crime scene as they cart me all over town.

this single thought brings me such gladness.

i promise you, some days it is the thing that GETS ME THROUGH.