remember

This conversation often goes through my head:  "Oooohhhh...I need to write that down somewhere so I won't forget what she/he said."  And then someone is starving and needs a snack and I forget.  Or, "That was the funniest thing he's/she's ever said, I have to write that down."  And then the phone rings and I forget.  You get the pattern.  I was looking through some pictures tonight and came across a couple of videos I took of the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween this year.  My first thought was just to skip over them because I knew they weren't of anything important.  And then I went back to watch them and I was SO glad I took videos of just the kids - not at a birthday party, not a soccer game, not posing for anything, not singing a rehearsed song, not performing at preschool...just a couple of videos of the kids being themselves running around outside laughing.  I know without a doubt that these are the videos Clay and I will be watching when they're both in college and we're just missing them.  A friend at church recently told me that her teenage kids would actually request to watch old home movies in the car when they went on vacation (Ann - thank you for always helping me to keep perspective!).  So, just an encouragement to my mom friends out there to write down the every day memories, take pictures of the same old weekly routine, and to switch the camera over to video every once in a while.

My favorite memory of the entire weekend - and it was a great one - happened just a couple of hours ago.  Rachel came downstairs asking if Clay had found her bear that she sleeps with.  I'll admit that I'm not always the most pleasant and patient person when they get out of bed.  However, I actually knew where the bear was so I went upstairs to get it and then tucked her in.  We whispered secrets to each other for a couple of minutes and then I told her goodnight.  When I got to the hall I heard her say to her bear, "I love my mommy so much.  She's the best mommy in the whole world."  I am truly blessed beyond measure.