By Glenda Wise
Good morning all! Thanks for sticking around during my hiatus. We have been on vacation and many of you may already know, but Donnie and I sold our beloved home in Poteau. As we were packing up 11 years of our life and it seemed as if every time we turned around there was another cabinet or drawer to empty, we were thinking it was a bad idea. Piece of advice...don’t let 11 years build up, make time to clean out those cabinets and closets. I know much or our time there was spent going from Point A to Point B shuttling kids to cheer competitions or dance rehearsals, which sometimes made it difficult to keep the laundry done, much less anything extra like cleaning cabinets. I never understood why my mother-in-law is so adamant about keeping things cleaned out, but now I get it. I definitely get it!
I have always loved that house, the view, just everything about it. It always felt like home to me from the day we moved in. Actually moving out of the house was a lot harder on me than I ever imagined it would be. After we started packing and emptying the house, I cried and cried. I soon realized, it wasn’t the house, but the memories that were made there. Every school project I came across reminded me that we are no longer in that place in our lives; we are finsihed raising our kids. They have moved on to be independent, responsible adults, as we raised them to be, but dang it, it’s hard. I just want to hold on to our family dynamic the way it used to be, but that is not possible, so I will look forward to the next chapter in our lives. We have a new grandbaby on the way in December and everyone tells me that is the best thing ever.
I heard a quote the other day about raising kids and it really resonated with me at this very moment in our lives. “The days are long, but the years are short.” Boy, was there ever a truer statement? When raising kids, it seems as if some days you are so exhausted you just want a few minutes of quiet to yourself and, yes, those quiet times are important for us to be good parents, but savor every last second of those long days, because they will be over before you know it. The people, those long, hard days (especially the toddler years) and the memories, make the home, not the structure. Whether the house be big, small, a million dollars or a thousand dollars it doesn’t matter, fill it with the people you love, fill it with good times, make the memories and make it your home.
I’ll close with the following Scripture verse: “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who put his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” I will keep looking forward and be grateful for the memories I have and look forward to this next chapter in our lives.