Close (5 minute prompt)

"Close the door!" I know I am going to be saying it all summer long.  This is the last day of school.  I was greeted with a "woo hoo, it's summer!" from Spencer and a crying Hailey.  Talk about mixed emotions.  I, too, have mixed emotions. I love having my kids home. I love their snuggles and their funny personalities and everything they do that is just too cute.  I don't love the fighting and the crying.  But it is part of the package.  As a mom, you take the good with the bad and the bad with the good.  You take it because you love them.  You love these sweet little blessings sent straight to you from a loving Father who trusted YOU enough to care for them.  Who trusted ME enough to know that I would teach them about God, about love, about kindness and compassion, about hard work and sacrifice.  Me, an imperfect person, an imperfect mother, who is grasping at straws many days, while feeling pretty accomplished on others.  The emotions are mixed.  Yet, he did send them to me because he knew we would be a perfect match for each other or a perfect learning experience.  Because without my kids, I wouldn't have the patience that I need to survive this life.  I wouldn't have empathy that comes from kissing wounds (fake or real), hugging when you are past the point of sanity, and loving when bedtime has come and gone.  And Brooke comes downstairs for one more kiss "on your hand, mom".  So, this summer when I am telling the kids, "close the door", so the flies won't get inside, I will think of how happy I am to tell them to close the door.  Because without them, the door would always be closed, the house would always be clean, my body wouldn't be wrinkly and fluffy and my whole world would be so very empty.