It's A Family Thing

Life seems to go by so fast that we all tend to miss a ton of the small stuff that really make living fun.  Let me rephrase that...  We usually LET life go by so fast.  One of the biggest changes we are making as a family is to revel in all of the messiness and chaos that is life.  I have always been prone to freaking out over spills or crumbs on the floor or the kids getting muddy outside.  I seemed to have a "don't do this and stay out of this" list about a mile long for my children!  While I was busy keeping the kids in order (ha ha right) I was actually missing out on so many opportunities to really live and enjoy every part of it.  I was frustrated 60% of the time and tired the other 40%. 
Guess what?!  Kids enjoy getting messy outside, it makes them happy.  If I let them do the things that make them feel happy and free (within reason, lol) than I in return begin to feel happy and free.  Guess what else?!  Kids are going to spill things and get crap all over the floors.  But I spill things too sometimes, and how would I feel if there was someone standing over me huffing and puffing b/c they had to clean it up?  I have wasted too much time being an uptight hellicopter parent and have finally decided to say to hell with it all!  Literally.

We are embrasing this life as a family and we are going to start enjoying the fingerprints on the windows, they won't be there for very long.  Every spill and mess is a representation that young life is abundant in our home.  Every crazy idea the kids get to do something that they think will be super fun (like, for instance, peeing into empty juice bottles so they can see what their urine really looks like, hahaha they really did this!)...  Let them do it!  The laundry and dishes and all the other messes aren't going anywhere, so why should we miss out on so much fun with our kids for that? 

This is part of our change...  To love and laugh with our kids more than ever.