Some days that's a pretty awesome situation. Some of them are willing to spill out details of their every day life. Some actually remember to do their dish duties. Things seem relatively calm and collected and for the most part they are pretty nice to each other.
Except when they're not.
And little cat-fights break out. They fight over clothes and accessories. And one in particular declares "you are the meanest sister in the world!" to another. On an on-going basis.
But oh I'll take the bad with the good any day because I do like being the mother of girls.
I loved our car ride together (last post). I even got them into a little debate about whether people should be allowed to have guns among other things (trying to up our current events game a little...we are not so hot at that around here).
After we met back up with Dave at Walmart near Lake Powell we let our three big girls take off to Horseshoe Bend (which was minutes away) before the sun set while Dave and I had a little date with Lucy to grab the remainder of our Lake Powell groceries before we hit the lake.
When they showed me their pictures a little later I marveled a little bit at those girls of mine.
First of all they could drive themselves there. Second they could hike the little hike to the view and got there in one piece without fighting or bawling and they know how to take pictures.
And third, they are just plain old. Old enough to have stars in their eyes about that incredible beauty God created for them. Old enough to know how much I would love seeing the pictures. Old enough that I think of them as my friends as well as my daughters.
How in Heaven's name did that happen??
I don't know, but it did.
And I am continually surprised at how much I love this stage.
But that doesn't mean I don't miss their baby-hood. No, sometimes I miss it so much it makes my heart stop dead in it's tracks. Like last Sunday night when my brother and I happened to find a random old video while he was helping me clean out my computer.
When everyone else heard us laughing they came and joined in watching, laughing through tears. Tears about how funny it was...and still real-to-life (Lucy still sure likes that spotlight a lot), and also tears because those four little girls of mine with baby cheeks are gone forever.
Oh how I love the big and little "thems."