Our children are with us for such a short season, it’s so key not to waste the time away. As I spent the evening with a great group of homeschool moms, some that are in the throws of diapers and teaching little ones to read, some teaching multiplication tables and others of us that are on the downward slope of high school.
As we were talking about planning some activities for the year, one of the Mom’s talked about making sure that she spent TIME with her two teenagers.
She talked about having only maybe a year or two left with her oldest son. That night it was very late when I got home, my teenage son was in bed, having spent the evening goofing around with his dad. I was heating up my dinner when my son appeared out of nowhere and scared me half to death – his favorite pastime nowadays! He asked me if I would come in and scratch his back while he fell asleep. I was hungry and tired, ready for bed. But I thought, how many more times will I have like this? Will this be the last time he ever asks?
I stumbled my way through the teenagers darkened bedroom, Lego land mines, books, papers, 4-H projects, clean clothes that were once folded all lay amidst the bedroom floor. Sitting on the bed scratching my teenagers back, I start to see the mess of the bedroom floor, I start to pick at each individual mess in my head, ready to give cleaning orders, but stop short. All the sudden my husbands parents home flashes before my eyes, I see four neat and tidy empty bedrooms, once filled with laughter and toys, books and games, clean and dirty clothes piles on the floor. Empty now.
Looking around the teenagers room, as I scratch his back, I think, one day again, soon I will see that beautiful laminate floor that we had picked out and hubby had painstakingly installed. It will be without the Legos, books, papers, 4-H projects or clean and dirty clothes, it will be empty, the furniture will be moved on to a college dorm room or an apartment.
The lingering odor of “I know that there is a dirty sweaty gym sock in here somewhere!” will be gone. I won’t have to hit up my teenager son each week with, “Please bring your dirty laundry out so I can wash it.” No more asking, “Do you have any dirty dishes in there?“ before I load the dishwasher. No more of his pleading “May I have the radio on while I go to sleep?“ No more of his friends camped out in sleeping bags amidst the Legos, dirty and clean laundry piles or stacks of well read books. It will all be gone.
Just yesterday I remember watching him kick about in his birthmother’s womb, as I watched her sleep in our recliner. It was just yesterday that my
husband came home to a very tired mother of an 18 month old toddler who was clingy on a hot and sticky day. I said “Would you please take him, he is
driving me crazy, I am hot and he won’t let go of my legs.” My dear all knowing husband, took the boy and gently said “Just remember, he won’t be wanting his mother forever.” Strangely I did not take offense to this, it was the tone in my husbands voice and the way he looked at me when he said it. Oh, those telling words, if only I could go back in time to my 18 month old clinging to me on a hot, sticky summer day.
I’ve so enjoyed the precious time I’ve had, in growing and nurturing our only son. The time is fleeting, but as I see a young Godly man emerging, it’s all been worth it. Now there is talk of college, careers, and a wife, we have moved into another dimension as we eek ahead to adulthood.
I think I will spent a bit more time sitting amidst the Legos, dirty and clean laundry piles and stacks of well read books, along with that all too familiar odor of that hidden sweaty gym sock.
“But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)
Moe blogs over at Adoptive Mom Homeschooling an Only Child. She is a born again Christian, wife, adoptive mom, mother of an only child, a writer, college adjunct instructor, speaker and homeschooling mom to a freshman. Moe also enjoys being a part of the TOS Review Crew, reading and scrapbooking.
