I didn’t have time for this today. I have about 25 hundred things on my list of things to get done, including work stuff, galleries to get out, cleaning to do at home, and more work stuff. I complain to my husband about these things I need to get done and once in awhile he responds with “why are you taking the kids to the [enter any place we are going] if you have so much work to do then?” Could be the zoo, or my hometown to see my parents, or a museum, or the swimming pool, water park, picnic splash park, movie on the green, art fest, farmer’s market, science night, open mic, fly a kite, watch the stars, and the list goes on. Why do I do these things if I have SO much to do?

Even as I write this he questions why I am not doing “work” because I told him I was writing a blog. This isn’t work, but it’s for my soul, and it’s important. I flipped him off just now and then he chuckled and walked outside to mow. What a nice wife I am.

So yes, I have a lot on my mind and my plate but it was at my 10 year old’s request that we head to Omaha and make some stops on the Nebraska passport. Summer is halfway over here folks, and while we’ve spent a good amount of time at the pool, I really felt like we needed to add something new to our 2017 memories. With myself and Tatum, Rennex who is two, and Ophelia at 6 months we headed out. I literally try my best not go to anywhere with all three by myself. One, I get super stressed. It’s nothing some essential oils and some deep breaths can’t fix…usually. But I dislike being in line with a crying baby and a whining two year old who wants to walk and LOVES to push the limits. It’s just not a good time.

If you were a person at Lauritzen Gardens today, mainly the groundskeeper I kept seeing who I swore gave me a snear when he walked by and my baby was crying so loudly I thought she scared all the birds out of the vicinity. It could have been an apologetic look but I couldn’t tell. Maybe I was snearing. Well, if you were any person at the gardens today, I swear you would have seen me either feeding a baby, trying to feed a baby, picking up a crying child who slipped, changing a child, then changing the other child who has massively runny poops, answering questions I didn’t know the answer to from my oldest, or picking up the many things that kept falling out of the stroller almost the entire time. Why does everything want to jump out of the stroller!? This is a slight exaggeration but at one time I just wanted to scream the loudest F word and let it echo through the zen garden, around the corners of the rose garden, and through the beautiful paths of the bird sanctuary. Plus it was darn hot. So I was sweating at the same time. Not a good combo.

Besides these hiccups…and in between the madness…it was THEE most wonderful day. Did I have time? Yes…I did make some. Did I have a million things I could have been doing? YES. Goodness, I did. Now I’m staying up late to catch up, but while I thought I just did not have time to do this day…I realized I won’t always have this time with them. I won’t forget Rennex wanting to see the choo choos more. His fat little cheeks shake as he ran toward us when we needed to wait for him. Tatum took some wonderful photos and really found how fun taking pictures is. I gleamed. I saw the creativity flow out of him and happiness splurge from his eyes. Ophelia wondered at the world around her, her bright eyes looking all around and then up at me, smiling like the happiest little baby. And ice cream. The magic of ice cream when the day is done. I have these memories now. I won’t always have this time with my children. It will slip by and someday I’ll read this and see these photos, forgetting the craziness and anxiety and ‘F’ words I may or may not have muttered and remember the sweetness.