Memories

The last little while I have been doing a lot of reminiscing. It started when Troy came in from outside, where he had been cleaning out the shed. He told me that he had some bad news for me. Some of the boxes of books we had been storing had been gotten into by mice. They were all boxes of children's books. The same books I had read to my sweet little ones what seemed like thousands of times. I went through the boxes, salvaged the few that I could, disinfected them, and had myself a little cry. It seemed so silly, to be crying over books. All books that could easily be purchased again. But new books wouldn't have the worn edges on them. New books wouldn't have their sweet little teeth marks on them. New books wouldn't have been there with us all snuggled up and reading for hours and hours. But my memories can never be taken away, and I know that my kids have great memories of those times too.

On Sunday evening Troy asked the kids to tell us about a favorite Christmas memory. I think the boys were thinking, "Oh boy, this will be fun!" but when Maya volunteered to start, and she shared a memory that none of us knew she had, it really turned into a special time. Maya told us that her favorite Christmas memory was a time when it was dark outside and it was snowing, Alex was playing his clarinet while looking out the window at the snow, Maya was just standing there listening to Alex, and I was making them all some hot chocolate. She told us that she just really loved the way she felt at that moment. After that everyone shared some thoughts and memories, and Troy and I came away feeling like maybe we have done some things alright. After we were finished Ethan told me that his new favorite Christmas memory was going to be that night, the way we all just sat and shared our thoughts and feelings.

This all made me think that very little of our lives are documented. And so, once again, I am going to try and do a better job of documenting our daily lives. There are so many things that happen all of the time to each of us that needs to be remembered. Things that can bring back so many memories; happy times, struggling times, learning times, sorrowful times. They are all important, they make up who we are.