Paintball Frenzy

Yesterday was my oldest's 11th Birthday, and it was a lot of fun for a whole herd of boys (husband and Uncle Nate included)! Amazing how fun it is to watch them running around shooting eachother in a large dirty & stinky room, covered with goop, feeling the pain, running for their lives. I was just glad it wasn't me, at least not at this point in my life. I keep saying "when I lose weight, when I get in shape, it will be so much fun!". Hmmm, when is WHEN? I have to be ready to lose the weight, and sometimes feel I am SO ready, but then I will eat birthday cake & ice cream for breakfast. But back to his bday...

I just can't believe we are 2 yrs from the teen years, 5 years from him driving, and 7 years from him being an adult. It didn't always fly by, these kid years, but lately, with raising 4 boys...it just seems to go to fast. Even with homeschooling and him being under wing more than not, he is just growing up into a little man of his own beliefs and opinions, so proud overall of the choices he makes in life, what he values (although he *could* be a lot nicer to his younger brothers, and is awesome with our toddler). My first baby, he is totally the guinea pig...we are learning how to raise kids and he is the first on so many levels. Of course I went into the memories of his birth and how amazing it was, what it did as far as changing my life in the best of ways.

He wants to do paintball every year, so I am thinkin that this birthday cake should just be eaten today and then on to the gym for workouts...next year I can go out there and join the herd! It would be a sad future me to have to look back at the photos of raising my kids and hating every picture because I am so out of shape, heavy & not as healthy (by far) as I could be! Morgan loves eating healthy and is so fit, he encourages everyone in our family to do the same. So hard, but what an example to him if I was able to do it, how strong would he be as an adult to see his parents pull themselves up by their bootstraps and "get r done".

We really only get one chance with these kids of ours. We make mistakes, say things we regret, have some god-awful days where we just want to crawl into bed and not come out until the next day, and then they go to sleep at night. We look upon them and at their beautiful faces as they dream, and cry for what we have done wrong, and cry how forgiving and resilient they really are, how much "bigger" and wiser they are than adults at time. We know we start fresh the next day, and if we mess up, start fresh the next hour. This is really an experiement of the greatest kind.

There is a great quote by Jackie Kennedy Onassis, "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well in life, matters very much."