“In the blink of an eye these days will be done with your children. Hold on tight to these times. Treasure them. ” (words from Mrs. Varey, Natalie’s preschool teacher) And so today even though my linen closet practically exploded in my hallway and I’ve got heaping mountains of towels and bedsheets strewn in the hallway to fold and carefully put back…..and even though my dining room table is a gigantic mess of arts & crafts supplies…..and even though there are a million unfinished to-do’s on my list…..I will go to bed happy. I’m smiling knowing that today I did the best I could to hold on tight to these precious, precious moments with my small children. They are growing up so fast. I can already see what Mrs. Varey is talking about. These are precious moments.

If someone had been holding a camera near me…….

• I wish they could have captured the sight of the 3 of us, with picnic basket in hand, walking across the millions of grains of sand to the shore.
• I wish someone could have captured the sight of me sitting in my little beach chair fondly looking on at my two happy children jumping in the water, digging holes with their sand shovels and running great lengths after seagulls who dared try come close to our picnic blanket.
• I wish someone could have taken a snapshot of the three of us sitting on the tailgate of our white Tacoma truck, folded down, us sitting there with our legs dangling down and us eating a lunch of sliced cucumbers, freeze-dried apples, bananas & strawberries, cheese and crackers while laughing our heads off as we tried to fight off the super-aggressive seagull who literally came inches away from snatching the pb& j sandwich right out of Natalie’s hands. His wings flapped against Natalie’s hair!! I got into super protective mama bear mode when I saw him try to snatch it away from her! How dare he!!
• I wish someone could have photographed Natalie and I sitting together at the little table in her preschool, happily decorating her gingerbread house together.

I am thankful for days like these.