Raising Kids

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
- Harmon Killebrew

I saw this today while I was doing some online Christmas shopping and I thought it was a very astute comment on parenting and priorities. Personally, I am a little nuts. I love my house, I love walking in the yard and looking at the flowers, admiring all the work we've done, but of course three kids can undo a lot of work in no time at all.

So it's not always easy for me to relax and let the mud run down their arms and the house to be overrun with forts. I'd often rather make the PB&J, the cake, the muffins myself, but I'm learning it doesn't matter if it takes a little longer, is a lot messier, it's always worth it to pause and enjoy the help. The most clear thing to me these days is that the joy isn't in the final product, the joy is in the work. Raising kids isn't about who you are hoping they grow up to be so much as it is enjoying who they are right now.






We made a little Christmas cake on Tuesday for dinner with Sarah and Maria. And I was telling the boys about being not too much older than they are when Sarah and I became friends. I was telling them about the hours of playing pretend, the years of giggles and secrets, and I told them I wished for them a life long friend like I have had. Here are our second generation of friends enjoying a little cuddle on the sofa (Rudolf was on TV for the older kids). Talk about joy and blessings. I have both.