A Grown Up Perspective. . .

Over spring break we packed up our car and headed to Idaho for a fun filled TEN days.  Half of that time Rob flew out to Scottsdale, Arizona for work and left us girls at my parent's house to get reacquainted with our long lost siblings and cousins (since moving to Washington we make it home a lot less often than when we lived in Utah).  Typically, when we do visit, we stay at Rob's parent's house, and how we fill our days differs at the two homes.

With Leesa, we shop and eat out and run around a lot--which I love.  At my mom's house we sit and chat and cook at home and the kids run wild--which I also love, and which the girls generally love as well (there are no cousins at Leesa's (aka Mana) house. At Mana's there is always a freezer full of ice cream, a closet full of toys and lots of new movies, and, of course, a lot of shopping--which often works in their favor--plus, in the summer there is a pool, lots of walking pathways and the Boise River for throwing rocks into.  But while my parent's house is no longer a farm (the land has been sold off and developed), it still feels like a farm.  Ducks, chickens, dogs and cats make for high entertainment, in additions to half a dozen or so girl cousins and a handful of boy cousins that show up to join the fun.

One would think, that since I grew up with wild liters of puppies and kittens roaming free, and climbed trees with the practiced agility of a monkey, and competed for the highest jumps on the trampoline, not to mention swimming in the canal (which the cows drank from. . . among other things) and dozens of other "country" activities, that I would want that for my children. . . and I do, BUT somehow scaling a tree to nose bleed heights seems less innocuous from the grand old age of 33 than it did from 7 or 11.  Cats have loads of germs.  Roaming puppies are in danger of being hit on the road if not kept under constant surveillance--kids too for that matter!  And don't get me started on the grossness that is the ditch!

I find myself constantly torn between letting them explore and be kids--after all they are outside, for pete's sake, and not on some electronic device--and reigning them in to keep them from killing themselves, breaking their necks on the trampoline, aka launching bone breaker.

I survived.  They will too. . . I hope.  I just have to keep remembering the old saying, "Everybody dies, but not everybody lives!"  I need to let my children live, albeit with an ounce of caution.  Just like Hannah proclaimed at the end of our trip (in reference to the go-go-go of Mana's house and the stay-stay-stay of Grammy's house) "Can't there just be balance!"

Wise girl.  I must be doing something right!