The big 3-0!

It feels a little weird to say that I'm thirty. Not sad or depressed or whatever else people seem to feel and deal with when they reach a certain age. Maybe when I hit forty...who knows.
So funny how when you are a little thing you can't wait to hit 10, then you can't wait to be a teen! And your teenage years....well those last an eternity! I'm pretty sure they felt like an eternity to my older sister too :)
I could NOT wait to "grow up". I still can't believe that I have 3 kids...is that possible? When did I turn into a responsible adult with 3 children? And that question brings along a other set of questions and request.
Am I raising them the way I should?
Am I teaching them to be responsible? honest? kind? patient? God-loving? Graceful?
Am I modeling all of those things to them?
Shouldn't I be able to do all of those things by the time I'm 30?
Pretty sure I'm failing in the teaching patience department. I have been asking God to be with me during those "on the brink, I only have one nerve left" moments.
And...talk about time. During this stage of my children's lives can I please have the clock that I had when I was a teenager? I want time to slow down like it did when I was 14.
Time is FLYING!!!
I remember sitting in my 2nd grade classroom in 1985 talking with the boy sitting next to me about 1996....the year that we would graduate high school. I can still see us sitting there. (Even though I don't remember what I had for lunch today.)
What a great 30 years though.
I was just e-mailing my dad about one of my favorite times as a kid. I never understood why my dad was always up so early. Now that I have 3 kids, I know. Getting up at 4:30 a.m. is the most peaceful time of the day! Sunday mornings were my favorite mornings waking up. Sometimes my dad would come storming in, turn on the lights, and say rise & shine if we happened to sleep in too late the particular morning. Most Sundays though we would all find our way to the kitchen table at a decent hour. We would have regular old cereal for breakfast or my dad may have gone out early and gotten donuts and bagels. Steph would eat one that had sprinkles. Why do I remember that? Then we would systematically ruin the nice piles of newspapers my dad had made during his peace & quiet. I loved Sunday mornings. Maybe that's why one of the biggest things I miss doing with Aaron is going out to breakfast, or any meal for that matter, and sit and read the paper to one another like we did...before kids. We still buy the paper everytime we go out breakfast only to have one of us hold it and then stare at the other and say, "what we were thinking?" Oh, I digress.
My 30 years...playing on 8 acres, tree houses, playing house, basketball, college, marriage, 3 kids....am I really playing real-life house??? Wouldn't want it any other way.
Can't wait to see what the next 30 years holds for me and my family.

Happy August 2008!