This past June, I took my kiddos home for my dad’s 60th birthday. It was just me and the two littles- aged 5 and 1 1/2 at the time- and we had the absolute best trip ever. We’ve taken a lot of trips back to Kansas. For various reasons- funerals, holidays, to show off the new baby. I don’t know what it was about this trip, but it was by far the best yet. Everything was smooth and fun and wonderful.
The planes were awesome because my 5-year old could walk and my boy could sit in the stroller and we watched movies and ate peanuts and cuddled.
The time covered my dad’s big birthday bash AND some 4th of July fun, so we partied and played every day for a week.
We shot off fireworks. We went to the lake. I WATERSKIIED! (super mom-points) We swam and swam and swam.
My kids loved being at Grandma and Grandpa’s. They loved the cats. They loved the toys. They loved the little cars they could ride in the driveway. And as a mom it was perfect because my boy could finally go up and down stairs by himself without everything freaking out. THAT, I think, was the biggest relaxation factor. They could roam free and it was awesome.
But something else happened while we were there. Something unexpected.
I began to see the effects of time.
On the house. On the fields. On the trees. On my parents… heck, even on myself. It was the same 20 acres I had grown up on and come home to for thirty years, but in those thirty years a lot had changed. And while we enjoyed it for what it was, my heart began to ache just a bit for what it used to 
be. And what the changes meant. And what the future inevitably holds.
That week I was due for a post on the Knoxville Moms Blog, so I shared my thoughts as eloquently as I could. You can read those thoughts here. I hope they bless you. I hope they make you step boldly into the future without fear or worry. But mostly, I hope they remind you to embrace every season- because they are all beautiful.
Rediscovering Yesterday 