You're Gonna Miss This

Lydie was in her room playing this morning and she pushed the button on her toy barn that makes a cockle-doodle-do. That sound carried my mind back to Venezuela 6 years ago. The roosters that lived near our apartment building would wake us up in the wee small hours of the morning. I would get so mad at them and I admit that I had some pretty un-Christlike thoughts. But hearing that familiar sound this morning helped me to realize how much I miss that wonderful place and those wonderful people. Being a missionary stretched me to the max, sometimes I felt as if I would snap, but I loved it. I miss it.
Being a mommy is stretching me too. Yesterday Lydie emptied the contents of her dresser and my computer desk drawer. I feel like I pick up her fridge magnet animals about 700 times a day. She pulls everything out of any basket or box so she can sit in it. She's starting to have little tantrums. Sometimes she won't nap. She just learned how to climb up onto the coffee table. My nice tidy life just isn't as nice and tidy as it used to be. I used to think I was a patient person, but I don't really think that anymore.
I then read President Monson's conference talk and this line really stuck out to me:
"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly." (Thomas S. Monson, “Finding Joy in the Journey,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 84–87)
I know someday I will miss this. I just need to keep telling myself this is a brief season of life and every little part of it is precious.

This song was recently added to my life's soundtrack:


You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this