The Days are Long but the Years are Short

 I've been reading a book called The Happiness Project, which I highly recommend. The author realized while sitting in a city bus, "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." So she dedicated a year to a happiness project. Her goal for April was Lighten Up: Parenthood. She told a story that made me cry (at 3 1/2 months pregnant it doesn't take much:)). Here it is:

A friend of mine told me that when his sons were five and three years old, they woke up at six every morning. On the weekends, week after week, he and his wife tried to persuade them to go back to sleep or to play quietly with no success. 

So finally he gave up. He'd let his wife stay in bed, and he'd get the boys dressed and out the door. He'd stop for coffee, then the three of them would head for the park, and he'd watch them play for an hour before they returned home for breakfast.

These days his boys sleep late on the weekends, and now, my friend told me, those mornings are some of his clearest and happiest memories of that period. The morning light, the quiet park, his little boys racing across the grass. 

The days are long, but the years are short.

I love it and it is so true. Some days seem to stretch out forever and the next thing I know a month has gone by. My babies are growing so fast. As hard as parenthood is at times, there is nothing sweeter than hearing the words, "I love you Mommy," and feeling those little arms around my neck and hearing the pitter patter of little feet running across the floor upstairs and the squeals of delight for the tiniest and most random things. Oh they are precious!

We went to the park today, so I thought I'd include my little muskrats.