9 years later

I can't believe our little Olivia just turned 9 years old last week.  It seems like yesterday I was pregnant with her and I looked at people with 9 year olds like they were in a whole different league than me.  I was going to have a newborn!!!  Now here we are 9 years later and we have 4 little girlies.  WOW!!!  Who would have thought.  It also occured to me that in only 9 more years she could be going off to college and there is that chance she could move away and start her own life.  Oh my, when I mentioned this one to Rich it just blew his mind.  We had to sit down and have a long talk about what is important to us and what we want to do with our girls before they are all grown up.  Life is too short to worry about how clean your house  - it just doesn't matter.  I don't want to spend my nights rushing around from one thing to the next or each morning yelling "let's get going you are going to have another tardy"!!!  My focus is to have peace in our home and family.  I want to take the time at night to get the house put back together, make sure lunches are packed, clothes are layed out and in the morning have some time with them no yelling.  We did this today and our girls were so much happier.  Tonight instead of plopping on the couch I went outside and played with them and really looked at them in the eyes.  We ended the night reading a chapter book and drinking tea.  I like days like this because I can go to bed feeling good about being a mommy.  I know every day won't be like this, but I would really like there to be more of them.  That's what I want our girls to remember.  I want to smile more and enjoy every moment.