So this past week Tessa turned 19. My third child is nearly out of the teens! Who can believe that? Since she is my only child that has a birthday during the school year (I managed to hit summer and winter breaks with the other three), I knew we had to see her at college in Indianapolis for her birthday. I also wanted to see Twelve Angry Men at the Indiana Repertory Theater, so why not do both? In fact, through some magical twists of fate, we had all of the Core Six there. I can see that this will become increasingly rare, so I want to soak in the time with my kids. We missed having Abby (Trent’s girlfriend), but she had to work. 

I noticed a couple things. First, the six of us don’t fit comfortably in one hotel room anymore. When they were little, it seemed to work, especially at The Embassy Suites. Now that they are all grown, the room seems tight. Don’t get me wrong, we will still squeezed in because rooms that night were crazy expensive (the Colts were home), but it was not as comfortable as when they were small people. 

Second, it used to be that Travis and I could put the kids down in the bedroom portion of the room and enjoy a glass of wine and down time alone in the living space. Now, Travis and I are in bed first. In fact, I am usually the very first in bed all the time. That’s because I am the very first up all the time. The kids aren’t bopping out of bed first thing in the morning, excited to get into the day. They are staying up half the night, playing board games and laughing at their farts. Then they wake up fifteen minutes before breakfast ends and race out of the room to eat, much to the delight of the hotel staff I’m sure. 

We had an incredible weekend. Twelve Angry Men was even better than I thought it would be…and I hyped it up. It’s one of my favorite movies, but the play was far better. I would have watched the movie before our trip, but it’s still in a box somewhere. Turns out, when you work full time, you have to actually stay home on weekends if you want to get anything done. But what fun is that? The house will be there next weekend. Maybe I will too.

I miss those days when I took for granted that the six of us would be together nearly all the time…when the kids were little and the house was full of craziness and laughter. I’m pretty sure Tayden misses it too. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t go back to that. I don’t have the energy. For now, I just appreciate that we can still get together for special times. It’s the best gift for this Mom’s heart. 

Enjoy your week all! Oh, here’s one more thing I discovered this week. I am the type of person that pulls up my drive and spends fifteen minutes in my car listening to the radio and playing a game on my phone. When I finally go into the house, I MUST carry my two mugs, iPad, phone, purse, lunch bag, paperwork, three half-empty water bottles, a pop can, and the dog leash that was left in the car all in ONE trip so I don’t have to go back to the car. Think about that.