In another lifetime...

Credits:Megablooms by Tracy Ann Robinson from SBB
Black paper by Peta Stokes
Font is Cooper

Don't know why but this layout started me thinking about changes in my life since I had my children.
Once upon a time, a long time ago....

• I used to clean my house once a week and it would stay tidy for the week.... Now I vacuum the floor everyday and half an hour later it is covered in crumbs. I seem to spend all day picking up toys, books, clothes, crayons and assorted junk. I wipe splashes off the sink and the floor more times than I can count.
• I used to be able to see out my windows.... now they are covered in fingerprints.
• I listened to the music I liked... now I listen to Hi5, The Wiggles and The Hooley Dooley's.
• I didn't even know who Dora the Explorer was... now I can count to ten in Spanish and I can't get the words to the damm backpack song out of my head.
• I could leave the house ten minutes after I decided to go somewhere... now if we are out the door in an hour we are doing well.
• I used to take relaxing baths with bubbles and candles... not with two children, twelve dinosaurs, two dozen assorted farm animals and a boat with Dora the Explorer in command.
• I used to cook different meals each night... now when I cook different meals half the people at the table say yuck!
• Saturday nights were for going out with friends, going out to dinner or catching a movie.... tonight I had a bath ( with the two children, dinosaurs, animals and Dora) spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and played with a toy football in the hallway.
• My handbag was small, stylish and matched my outfit... now its the size of a small backpack and holds wipes, tissues, crayons, colouring in books, toy cars, Yugi Oh cards, spare underpants, discarded dummies and snacks.... somewhere in there I have keys, wallet, phone and on a good day lipstick.
• I would do the laundry once or twice a week.... now I do at least two loads a day.
• I had no idea how my heart would melt when a little voice said Mummy... now I do.
• I didn't realise how much I could love another person... and now I do.

I love my life right now. I wouldn't have it any other way. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy my other life, before I had children... because I did. But I truly love where I am right now... and I try to remind myself of this everyday. I find that sometimes I just get bogged down in the details... the messy floor, the never ending laundry, the toys everywhere... and at the end of the day they aren't really important. The floor will always be messy, but I won't always have my children. So tonight I hopped in the bath with my kids rather than fold the washing. Tonight we kicked the footy (its foam) down the hallway until half an hour after bedtime.... enjoying life everyday. Got to remember to do it more often.