Weekends! Oh, how I L.O.V.E. them! I love the prospect of having two whole days off to do with what ever I want! I love the anticipation that builds up during the week, like there is some fabulous ending in sight of the weary work week. It might just be that I don't have to pack lunches for two nights in a row. A dreary task if there ever was one!
My daughter Emily would rather die than admit it, but she loves the days that I'm off too. I work the night shift now, so there is mom at home during the evening for tucking in to beds and reading goodnight stories and prayers. Also, mom is there to cook dinner and we eat together every night. BUT the payment for such bliss in the evenings, is that mom is not home when the older girls and Dad leave for school. So the nights before, I make lunches for everyone and put them in the fridge. Then I either make breakfast and place in the fridge for microwaving in the morning or I lay out cold cereal, or the toaster, bread and peanut butter and hot chocolate already measured out into cups... So that when Emily wakes in the morning she has a meal before going to school. This is the child who as soon as she could talk would lay quietly in bed with us in the morning waiting until we had an eye open. As soon as she saw our eyes, it was time to GET UP! Make MUSH! Or better yet, bacon and eggs, pancakes, french toast, waffles with strawberries sausage gravy over biscuits. She hasn't changed much in 14 years. Every Monday morning I am home. Every Monday morning there is a stealthy footstep at the side of my bed, and a soft voice "Mom, are you going to make breakfast?" Emily is the first up in the morning every day as her school starts the earliest. She wakes up at 5:15 every day, eats breakfast by herself, then wakes the rest of the house at 6:00am to have family prayer and then she leaves the house by 6:15 to pick up her girlfriend who walks to the bus with her. Such a good sweet girl. So I figure it's a good gig that I get up and fix her a fresh hot breakfast on Monday. We have a few minutes alone together in the morning before sisters get up and demand attention from me.
I treasure the time, usually spent quietly, sometimes talking over things, but mostly just the TIME with her, getting to watch her sweet face slowly wake up. I usually don't eat, it makes my stomach flip flop if I try, but I sit and sip peppermint tea and visit with her. I know that these moments are shortening, the time will come when she can barely drag her self up in time for seminary, before the boys will start knocking at the door for dates, before what I say is stupid and old fashioned or worse, I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HER!
So, I don't mind getting up on the only morning I could sleep in a little bit with Dan. I make her something great that she doesn't make for herself yet and I watch my baby girl grow into a beautiful young woman. And hopefully some where in the turmoil of teenage angst she will remember that I will always listen. I will always love her. I will always be waiting with open arms for her to return. And that I love her.
Posted by Naomi Alderson at 7:19 AM
