Someday

I wrote this when Andi and Zac were 8 years old and in public school. I was a single mom. It was true then but all these years later - it's even more true. Enjoy your babies.

Someday when the kids are grown, things will be different. The kitchen won't have basketballs in it and the refrigerator won't be covered with school papers and permission slips. I won't reach for the last soft drink, only to find someone else already has.

Someday when the kids are grown, I can take a long leisurely bath without interruption -- without having to settle an argument or get a knot out of a shoelace. I can put on makeup without having to explain why 8 year olds can't.

Someday when the kids are grown, I can talk on the phone without having more conversation with the kids than the person I am trying to talk to. And someday, when the phone rings, and I make a wild dash to answer it, it will actually be for me and not a squeaky little voice asking for a kid.

Someday when the kids are grown, I will go to the bank without having to ask for suckers, and I will dine in a restaurant which doesn't specialize in pizza. I will actually eat a whole piece of gum without dividing it into three smaller pieces.

Someday when the kids are grown, I will drive my car without answering questions such as, "Mom, since our car is so old, does the radio only play old songs?" I will travel more than five miles without singing Row Row Row Your Boat in rounds.

Someday when the kids are grown, I won't have to leave my favorite TV show, right in the middle of the best part, to go tuck in and kiss goodnight a stuffed a animal that thinks I'm "Grandma".

Someday when the kids are grown, I will have an organized garage. It won't be cluttered with bikes, pogo sticks, roller skates, fishing poles, abandoned hamster cages and a variety of sport equipment.

Someday when the kids are grown, I won't be searching frantically at the last minute for lost lunches, library books, homework, jackets, barrettes, ball gloves, cleats or backpacks. I will just wake up, get myself ready and enjoy the morning paper without a fight for the comics.

Someday when the kids are grown, I will buy the cereal I want to eat and not the one with the cool 3D glasses in it. I will never have to tell anyone else that we are not drinking strawberry milk for supper and bananas do not have spider eggs in them.

Someday will certainly be different. Order will replace chaos. Quiet will replace noise. Silence will replace the hundreds of "what ifs" and "why does" questions. My home will be quiet, organized, serene. . .and lonely. The sound of laughter can't be replaced. My house will be full of memories - but not kids.

Someday is rushing at me all too fast. I wish I could slow it down. I already long for yesterday.