PRICE OF A MEMORY
I’m so done mamas. I’m tired. It’s been a month. If i could stretch that word out like taffy I would. Because it’s long. And I’m done. It also feels like winter. Two days ago was Halloween and trick or treating in the frigid cold while blowing my nose with my freezing hands was work. It hasn’t exactly been an easy month. Or Halloween. I’m sick. The kids are sick. And in truth, it’s ALWAYS something. But with every fall, comes the change. Change of weather, change of scenery, change of health. And if I”m honest, I’m fine. It’s silly even to mention. I’ve been battling a 2 week cold on top of kids having strep throat, a stomach bug and an unpleasant unplanned oral surgery (for me) this month also. It’s a lot. And I can handle it. But showing up for the trick or treaters and making a memory all comes with a price. And from my point of view it’s incredibly worth it. And here’s why.
When I was kid, I would roll my eyes plenty at my Mom suggesting my sister and I wear matching sequin dresses to church on Christmas eve. Or for Halloween, we BOTH go as 80’s punk rockers because we could share the hair spray paint. With every tease of our hair, or makeup brush to our face, Mom was creating a memory. She would smile and tighten her lips as she drew on our pink lipstick. I told her this yesterday as I learned the twins were sick, I still wasn’t feeling well and honestly I just so damn tired. And I laughed and said, “but how cute were the kids costumes?” She immediately started laughing about how cute the kids were, how proud they were of their costumes and she kept on and on giggling like she did back in the good ole days when we were kids. This made me smile of course.
I can’t imagine it was easy. Sewing costumes, spray painting shirts, gluing sequins. There was no amazon prime back then. It was all DIY. That was the price of a memory. And my mother and all the mothers we knew in our town were doing it like mom. And when they got all of us kids in a row to get a big group picture, they giggled, they spilled their wine, the flashes flashed and about 10 different Dads had their camcorders out. It was magnificent. And the smiles were contagious all across the room.
You see, I’m sure Mom had sick kids one Halloween, or 2 or 7, or a sick Christmas, or an Easter with a broken leg. Or perhaps someone threw up in church all over their red dress. 4 kids, something had to give. And surely it did.
Between dressing up my twin boys as country pop stars to twinning with my daughter for a disney themed extravaganza, to last minute buying my first pair of cowboy boots and hats for my 4 year old boys and spending a fortune, it was all so extra. But the joy I relished in, regardless of the antibiotics I had to administer, or the humidifiers I had to fill, or the doctors visit (I myself had this morning) just to be sure I wasn’t also going down for the count, this October of 2019, was memorable. It was hilarious, adorable, sweet and silly. It was a memory worth every amazon box, every amazon return, every itch scratched under a synthetic purple wig, all of it. I smile just thinking about it. That’s how Mom is when she talks about my childhood. Or the moments this summer on the beach in Hawaii with her 4 kids and 12 grandkids all dressed in white for a sunset image. It may not be easy, or stress-less, but that’s the price of a memory. And I’ll continue the tradition till the day I die, period the end.
(And since the temp dropped 30 degrees, I’ve added some outerwear to this weeks favorites. See below and Merry Christmas. I mean, in like 50 days or something. K love you bye.
