Teary Eyed

Today was Gabby's last day of school. Over the last week or two, it has struck me several times...."Wow! School is almost out. Gabby is going to be a first grader." Where does the time go? We hear that question time and time again and yet, no one has an answer. It's always followed by, "I don't know." "We are always so busy, there's never time to do ANYTHING!" Rush, rush, rush! I just told Brad the other day that I really need to start saying "No" to more things because if I don't, my life will never slow down and I'll miss out on these precious times with my kids.

So anyway...on with my story. I got up this morning with the kids and tried to make it a happy day with the kids. We had breakfast, I folded and put away some laundry and then I sat down with them for 45 minutes and played games. I then rushed out the door when Brad got home at 10a.m. so I could go clean one of my houses and rush home so he could go into the office this afternoon. I never stopped to think to myself that it was a milestone day, I just went to work. As I was cleaning, I got a text from a good friend of mine saying, "Are you teary eyed today?" My response to her was, "Nope, too busy working. Why, are you?" She responded that she didn't think so. Hmm...I thought to myself. This is the same person that was excited for school to get out last week when we talked and knew it would give her more freedom because of a loosened schedule.

It wasn't long and I got a call from Brad telling me that Gabby had a breakdown and was silently crying when they pulled into the drop off line at school today. She was teary eyed because it was the last day of school. She had not let on to us that she was at all sad but I think it was all coming to a head with all the fun stuff they had done over the last week there. I felt bad that I wasn't there for her but then thought it may have been just as well.

A few minutes after I hung up the phone with Brad, another text from my friend came through. It was a picture of her son, dressed for his last day of kindergarten and the text said, "Didn't think I would tear up :("
In that moment, it stopped me in my tracks as I realized this was Gabby's first, LAST day of school. I have 12 more summers with Gabby home, if God blesses me with that many! I wanna make the most of it because I look at her in amazement at how much she has grown up already!

So....I got done cleaning and got Brad sent off to the office. I was able to enjoy a half hour of quiet time while Carson slept and then it was time to go pick up my not so little girl. As we pulled away from the school, I found myself a little teary eyed too, and I smiled knowing that I had just joined an unknown number of moms that felt the same way.