5 Minutes of Growing

It's time for another 5 minute Friday... even though today is Monday. This time we're writing about Growing. This is such an appropriate subject to write on in my life right now. Life is changing, things are moving forward and my babies are GROWING. Ashton just turned 8 a couple weeks ago, Angel will be 4 this weekend, and Andrew is going to be a teenager in 3 weeks. WOW. My babies really are not babies. And I feel older. I've been through 6 months of a deployment, single parenting my kids, running a household alone, and learning how to live my day to day life without my husband/partner/best friend by my side. He isn't completely out of the picture of course; we still email and yahoo chat as often as possible, but not having him physically here is quite a growing experience. My children are getting older; changing personalities; learning to deal with life without a Dad around 24/7. Everyday life has been an adventure, a challenge, hard, tough, rewarding... LOOOONG. I'm tired. Growing makes a person tired. There is a real reason why kids who go through growth spurts tend to take longer naps or sleep longer at night. It's EXHAUSTING. But it's worth it. You come out the other end of the growing experience a changed person. Hopefully changed for the better. Hopefully made stronger, more resilient, more sure in yourself and your choices. I really hope the end result of our Growing is all these good things. I really pray that things get better because of our Growing Experiences and things are made stronger. Specifically, I want our relationships to be better and stronger. I want my kids to depend on each other, and us, their parents, more. I want them to realize we've gotten through all this together, we've gotten older, and we are better for it. We just had a great Harry Potter Themed birthday party for Ashton on Friday and this Sunday we'll be having a Princess Tea Party for Angel. Then a couple weeks later it's Andrew's turn to have his first Teenager Party complete with music, food, and friends. Then we start actively preparing for our Soldier  to come home to us again. So much Growing is still left to be done, and yet these events are ushering us into our next steps... I'm scared yet looking forward to these next steps.
I think I've gone over my 5 minutes. Once I started, the words just came and I needed to get them down. I love these 5 minute posts. I'll be back with more.

5 minutes on JOY

I'm trying something new today. It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog, and I've felt the urge to just write. No pictures, no plan, just write what I'm thinking and feeling and see what happens. Yesterday I found a blog called The Gypsy Mama and she has a thing that her and several other bloggers do called 5 minute Fridays. I decided to give it a shot. It was pretty much exactly what I was feeling like doing on my blog, and it gave me a direction to write in. Today I'm going to write about JOY.
Joy is a word I've used throughout my life, but I always use it flippantly. I know I've felt true JOY in my life, but I think I take it for granted. I remember the pure JOY I felt when my daughter was born. It was such a difficult, stressful, worrisome pregnancy. I remember the moment I looked down at her, literally seconds after she was born, and she was on the birthing bed and she was ALIVE. She was tiny, reddish, and so perfect. I remember thinking that she was BREATHING on her OWN, and she had a look on her face that said, "How DARE you interrupt my nap!" The JOY I felt at that moment is unexplainable.
There have been other moments of Joy in my life, but I honestly think none can compare to that one. I want nothing but happiness for my children in their lives, and when I can do something for them to bring them Joy, well... I think that is one of my biggest goals as a Mom.
So that's it. My 5 minutes is up. It feels good to have put some words out there, even if they don't make much sense and even if one of them isn't really a word (unexplainable).
I think I'll continue on with my day, and try to find little pieces of JOY. Actually, I just heard some Joy in the other room... My Angel baby is playing with her friend, Maddox, and they are laughing like only 3 year olds can... I love it.
I hope some of you out there read this and want to join in on the 5 Minute Fridays as well. Check out The Gypsy Mama's blog and see what it's all about. I'd love to read about your JOY.