I Took His Hand and Followed

So I have only 6 1/2 more days left with just Jacob and Noah before school is out for the summer.  Then, in the Fall, my sweet Jacob will join the older two in going to school everyday.  Am I excited?  Absolutely.  Am I anticipating only having one at home?  You bet.  Am I sad that my time with Jacob at home with me is almost over?  Incredibly!!!  Time goes by way too fast...doesn't it? 

I found this poem the other day and I LOVE it.  Wanted to share it with you. 

I Took His Hand and Followed

(Author Unknown)

My dishes went unwashed today,

I didn't make the bed,

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,

My little son and I,

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the summer sky.

We waded in a crystal stream,

We wandered through a wood;

My kitchen wasn't swept today

But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade

And now my small son knows

How Mother Bunny hides her nest,

Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,

We climbed a sunlit hill,

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,

We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,

That I didn't brush the stairs,

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little boy

To noble manhood grow,

In twenty years, the whole wide world

May look and see and know.

What a good reminder to me to soak up every minute with my kids. And if my house is deshevelled and something goes without being cleaned....who cares? (Well, besides me.) Because when all is said and done, when my kids are grown adults, is it more important for people to say, "my what a clean house she kept!"....or "what wonderful, caring, God-loving, Jesus-following children she raised!"? 

Can I have both?  Most of the time, yes!  But instead of getting so uptight that laundry has piled up (AGAIN!) or the dishes didn't get done or putting my kids off because I just can't stand the sticky floor, I hope I can be the kind of mother that takes time to go on adventures with her kids and enjoys every minute I have with them.