Lasagna Tuesdays

Sunday evenings. Time for reflection.  I think if I lived near to my family, it would be the best time of the week for gathering and visiting.

I often imagine what my life would be like if I lived near to my family.  Wouldn't it be lovely to invite someone over for a meal on Tuesday?   What if the kids could have routine sleepovers with their cousins? What if we could do the annual hiking spree?  What if I could eat an occasional chicken dinner or hit up The Hartville Kitchen  for a legit meal?

How has the life I provided for my children been different - has it been better or worse by living all over?   Time is always on my mind these days, each day seems to be precious and fleeting.  I don't think I am spending nearly enough time with loved ones.  I feel it in my soul.  I'm almost to the "old" generation.  The generation I remember so clearly as all my cousins graduated and I was last.  The "aunts and uncles" generation.  The "adults" who manage and run the funerals.  That's me.  I'm the adult. I'm the middle aging one.  My nephews and nieces are graduating and moving out/on.  It's too late for cousin sleepovers.

Every time I look at Noah, he seems taller.  He is becoming so lanky - all legs like his father. All traces of childhood boy are gone.  How can it be?  He is taller than me which makes it difficult for me to say "Get over here and hug your Mom." I can reach into the past and hold baby Noah close.  I smell his sweet baby smell. I hear his little voice.

Aaron is himself graduating from elementary in a few weeks.  Off to middle school.  Out of his mother's heart and into puberty.  Say it isn't so.  Say we'll stay in this moment.  Say we'll go back to "Chee" baby and  monkey boy who as a toddler would routinely climb to the top of the swing set.

It's okay that we have made a life where we found ourselves planted. We have made wonderful memories with many people in many parts of the world.  A sign of being in the aged group is talking woefully about reaching into the past.  But another sign of being in the aged group is that you realize how precious is time and how precious is memory.  You decide to do and not dream.  You invite friends for lasagna on Tuesday.  ( Although they are not nearly as likely to attend as, say, your sister would.)  You go on the vacation you talk about.  You have a bonfire and s'mores because you want to.

In the end, life is what you make it. You can dream and wonder.  And you can do.

I'm grateful to be in the "aunts and uncles" generation - the one I remember observing - because it means I now have the means to do.

Scrabble Mondays.  Lasagna Tuesdays.  Bonfire Wednesdays. Concert Thursdays. Baseball Fridays.

Let's make some memories this year!