My husband Jason and I have been blessed to have three children who love to create artwork for public display.
Every inch of the front of our kitchen fridge is covered with some sort of creation that each child has created over the years. From stick figures to poems to colorful nature scenes, it does my heart good to see a piece of each one of their personalities in front of me everyday.
But it is bittersweet as well.
Our oldest son James will be 16 years old in December, and it has been a few years since he made us a piece of artwork. In fact, a drawing of Army men still hangs on our fridge from when he was about five years old. He colored outside the lines and misspelled a few words. But that crumbled piece of construction paper reminds me of when he was a little boy, who would color us a picture about once a week.
Our daughter Elsie created another piece of art for us recently. She had a portrait of our family, and for a 12-year-old, she is starting to pay attention to every small detail. In her artwork, Jason is on the couch, playing his guitar. I am sitting beside him with a smile on my face. Jase is dancing in front of us. Elsie is playing with puzzles on the floor. And James is standing beside the couch with a T-shirt that says “too cool.”
And Jase gives us a piece of artwork based on whatever mood he is in during that moment. This week he painted a picture of him throwing snowballs with a snowman.
And just last weekend, he created five framed art pieces for my office.
They are simple pieces of paper. But they are worth their weight in gold to me.
Looking at those memories over the weekend has really changed my mindset in the midst of balancing all kinds of “to-do” lists out in my head.
The time is passing by so fast, and time is far more important than money and material things.
I am guilty of somtimes feeling that I can make up for my time at work or my time spent shuttling my kids to a variety of extracurricular activities and sports by buying them something. Granted, a treat or toy is fine as a reward. But I have to begin setting a boundary for myself.
Like most mothers, I am exhausted by the time I get home from work. After handling school or sports material, cooking supper, cleaning the house…all I want to do is get in my pajamas and fall into my recliner.
But after seeing a reminder of how fast time flies, I am going to try a little harder at home to embrace those small moments that are actualy bigger than you think.
There is a saying I heard once that “if you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money.” That quote came back to my mind over the weekend when I stopped to notice their years of artwork on the fridge.
Those pieces of artwork remind me that it is better to provide moments together instead of material things with my children.
And time is the greatest commodity.
