The Perks of Parenthood

This was an unusually busy week for me. (I can see some of you rolling your eyes at that...Stop it!) Anyway, the best parts about my busy week were all about being a mom. It's (usually) the best job!

On Wednesday I took Hannah and Lauren and went to pick strawberries at a farm. I wanted to go last week, but didn't make it. I knew I had to squeeze it in to this week, although it was busy, because these berries are only ripe for a short season. We're all out of freezer jam, and we've been suffering through store-bought jam for a couple of months, so we've been anxiously awaiting berry season so that we could stock pile our freezer again. So, I just had to fit it in. Looking at my calendar, I realized that Wednesday had to be the day. So I took Hannah and Lauren and our picnic lunch, and we headed to the berry farm. I had invited a couple of other gals from the ward to come along, which they did, with their young kids. But when we got to the fields of strawberries, Hannah and Lauren and I made our way down the rows, just the three of us, in search of the best berries, and we had the best time together! Lauren really got serious about picking strawberries with me--she carried her own basket and all--and Hannah got really serious about taste testing the berries.

Then we came home, and got back into our busy week. Now, four days later, the strawberries, which I washed and stuck in the refrigerator for making jam "later"....are still sitting in the fridge, getting soft. I think I might have to start over. But it was worth the 17 bucks just for the fun afternoon in the sun, picking berries with Lauren and Hannah.

Thursday was Emily's day to make me smile. I had signed up to go on a field trip with her. All year long, every time Katelyn or one of Emily's friends from another class went on a field trip, Emily complained that she NEVER gets to go on field trips. Apparently, she must have complained to her teacher, too, because they scheduled about four field trips during the last couple weeks of school for Emily's class. This one was a trip to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. It was enjoyable for three reasons:

1) I learned more about dinosaurs than I ever thought I would care to know. We watched an IMAX movie as soon as we got to the PSC, and it was all about dinosaurs. It made me want to take my kids to that place near Vernal, Utah (is that right?) where my parents took me as a kid, and we saw the people in white jumpsuits brushing dirt right off the dinosaur bones in the side of the hill. That stuff, it turns out, is pretty darn interesting. That movie also gave me another desire--I wanted some popcorn! You just can't have a proper theater experience without popcorn. They even had a snack bar, but I wasn't about to buy popcorn for the entire 2nd grade student body.

2) I got to eat lunch with Emily, outside. It was even a lunch I made just for my own self--it wasn't even the left-over crusts from Hannah and Lauren's lunches! Now that's a good lunch! I had to do some sweet talking to get Emily and her two classmates I was in charge of, to eat lunch outside, in the sunshine. Honestly, it was partly sunny, and maybe 65 degrees out, but all I heard from those girls was, "Oh, my eyes! It's so bright out here, my eyes are watering!" and "Can we sit in the shade? I need to find some shade..." I refuse to let my children become sun weenies.

3) Emily still likes to hold my hand. How much longer can that possibly last? I was sitting with her on the big yellow school bus on the way home from the museum, and watching all the kids around us bouncing up and down in their seats and yelling at each other. Then I'd look at Emily, sitting quietly next to me, sucking on her cheeks like she does, and holding my hand while we both enjoyed the scenery out the window. I almost started crying, when I realized that very soon, she'll be too big to want to hold my hand and sit by me instead of her friends. I couldn't help it--I had to snap a picture, without letting Emily know what I was trying to capture...