CREATE Memories: Five Minute Friday

I am late to the Five Minute Friday party because I have been very busy creating memories with my children. Most of the time, I would have stopped what I was doing to address the prompt (especially since I hadn’t posted this week), but when I saw the prompt word was CREATE I knew I had to keep doing what I was doing. So here I am joining almost at the last minute.

It’s 3:00 Thursday morning. As I write this, I am in a chair that I moved in to the hotel bathroom so I don't disturb my family as they sleep. 

In almost 20 years of marriage one of the things my husband and I have consistently agreed on is that we wanted to make memories with our children. This is so important to us, that my husband even made stickers that adorn our vehicles, pop-up camper, and boat that all say "McDonald's Memory Maker"

For Christmas we would ask Grandparents to purchase family Season passes to Houston area museums or the zoo. It was difficult for them to do this because they wanted to see the face of my children light up as they "opened a box of goodies". We made it a point to call the person who gifted the membership each time we went thanking them for the Christmas gift that we were benefiting from much longer than the toys they otherwise would have received. 

Stuff will break and wear out. My children will forever remember the time spent together, enjoying and annoying one another in new ways and at new locations.

If you’ve been following my blog, you may remember my post on Mother’s Day about the posture of parenting. (you can visit that here) We are in a season of change. With one of my daughters being 16 and a Junior in High School, and the other turning 15 and starting her Freshman year in High School, I am keenly aware of our limited time together. 

Very soon they will have jobs or be gone to college and their schedules will be ones where there won’t be much time for family experiences. (Quite frankly, if they are like I was, they will look for every reason to avoid family time, but I hope not)


I also know there will be the day when they have a special person in their life that and it will no longer be just the four of us creating McDonald Memories. There will also come the day when they will eventually be tasked with creating memories with and for their own families. While I would love to be included in that, I have no guarantees.

So please forgive me for being late to the party--and also for rushing off again so soon. Today is my 45th birthday and I get to spend it creating memories at Disney World... Don't we look cute in the shirts we created? 

The girls surprised me with a tiara to wear today...YES! Big girls are Princesses too!

I am joining with #FMF a group that challenges us to write for only 5 minutes on a given word prompt. This weeks word is "CREATE". Feel free to see how other bloggers responded to this week's word.