Foto Friday - Growing

This weeks challenge was growing. BOY this was an easy (and difficult - but more emotionally than physically) one for me! And I'll tell you why...

We have no money (who does these days?) so we decided to goto the park and Penny arcade, where YES, most of the games are a penny, nickle or dime to play (save up your spare change and you can be there for hours!).

But as the day I went, I was keenly aware of how quickly my children are growing up!

AA went with Daddy to look at the local rock shops. She is way into rocks and fossils. She found a small geode for a dollar (everything in the store was half off) and grabbed it! (Yes, this photo is of her and Daddy in the penny arcade, but it was the only one I had of the two of them and as I was watching the other children while they went off, I am using this picture.) :D

With Daddy and AA gone, I had the task of watching over MM, EE and JJ all by myself.

At a park.

Which I hate.

You see I NEVER goto the park without another adult to watch my kids because Mommy is always having to watch the youngest one closest. So this was a BIG step for me (I guess **I** am growing too) to do this.

EE and MM went off by themselves (we live by the buddy rule!) and I looked up every once in a while to check on them. And once when I looked up ...


...JJ decided to try his hand at rock climbing. This was his first rock to climb and conquer.

Now you have to understand, having three girls first does not begin to prepare you for the life of a boy! He is all boy and I am doing my best not to let him see my fear when he does stuff like climbing big rocks. :D He made it to the top and he was so proud.

My little boy, not so little any more. Running and laughing and I am so thankful for it all!

This whole time I was caring for JJ (who went from rock to tree to slide to rock to ladder to....) I noticed that EE was pushing MM and another little girl on a swing.

The last time I looked up, I noticed she had gotten on and all three were trying to swing. It wasn't working very well. I wanted to reward EE for her serving her sister and that other little girl, and take the opportunity to teach JJ to serve, so we headed over there to push.


My baby girls growing up!!


YES, that IS a baby doll up in a tree. They saw it when I was pushing them on the swing. This brought my girls such giggles that it reminded me that no matter how quickly they were growing up, they STILL were children. OH THE GIGGLES!!!


So as I was pushing the girls, I was talking about how thankful I was for EE pushing. And she pushed them for quite a long time. However, JJ and I had not been there long pushing and JJ wanted to go off and play some more (understandable - he is a boy and he is three). :D I said that we needed to stay and push EE some more.

Now what she said next, you have to understand why I am showing all these pictures and how I became so reflectful of how quickly my children are growing and how fast the time, no matter how hard I try to hold onto these moments, they quickly slip away.

She said "That is OK Momma. I can push some more. I can put others before myself." And she got off and continued to push her little sister and another little girl.

I am so proud of her. And so thankful that God, in spite of all my faults, in spite of all the mistakes I make and my selfish and sinful heart, is working on my children and producing such beauty in them.

They will have a better walk with the Lord than I do. They will be better keepers at home than I am. They will be better wives and mothers than I am. And I am so thankful for this.

It breaks my heart to hear mothers wish that their children will go through what they went through. "I hope you have a child just like you so you know what I put up with." How can ANY mother want less than the BEST for their children?!

My children have their faults. But I would wish and hope and PRAY that they have children who benefit from what their mothers learned under my care. I was reading that the Pearl's children, now grown and parents on their own, do not have to spank their children nearly as much as the Pearl's had to spank theirs.

I want that for my children. I want them to grow in grace and humbleness - that when they have children, their children will not need to be spanked nearly as much as my children have. That their children will not hear the amount of yelling that my children have. That they won't have to make as many mistakes to learn the same lessons. That my grandchildren will benefit from all that God is doing in the lives of their mother's now.

So there you have it. How I grew up in one day and noticed that my children are growing far quicker than I can capture! SO THANKFUL for the challenges Rebecca does. You do not have to be a professional to participate. But in participating you are capturing those moments which do slip by so quickly. And if you don't catch them now... you will miss out. You might regret it.

And don't forget to take photos of yourself! I know, if you are anything like me, you don't like to do this. But it is so important. Your children LOVE you. And your husband LOVES you. And when you die, they are going to want to see as many pictures of you as they can. From your childhood all the way up until the time you died. I have been to two funerals of special women. Their husband's had lots and lots of photos of them out. They made scrapbooks of those pictures (from childhood to death) and those pictures meant so much to them. So please PLEASE turn the camera on yourself from time to time.

OK... stepping down off my soapbox. Head over to Rebecca's for more Foto Friday entries and please consider joining us next week. You will not regret it.