An Evening Out with My Children

This past weekend I did a lot of purging of things. I collected several bags to take to Goodwill. Yesterday, I told my kids that after school (today), we would go to Goodwill to drop off these bags and then go have dinner. My oldest son asked if we could shop at Goodwill, too. I gladly told him yes (I may have a Goodwill problem). My kids love Goodwill; this has everything to do with the fact that they usually get to pick something cheap to bring home. I told my husband he was free for the evening, and he told me he was excited for gas station food and time for the taxes. He gets pretty excited when he can have a gas station rib sandwich for dinner. Classy, I know.

We drove the 30-ish minutes to Goodwill. We listened to music. My oldest is on a Luke Bryan kick right now, so we listen to a lot of Luke Bryan, which is fine because--LUKE BRYAN!! My middle son chose Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard and the Star Wars theme...he is a padawan as he informed me earlier. My daughter chose a song from The Descendants 2 soundtrack and Bartender from Lady Antebellum. It feels a little wrong listening to your children sing about the bartender bringing out more rounds and watching the disco ball go all around. Sigh. Nothing makes you blush about your college years more than imagining that someday your children will go off to college and probably do the same kinds of things you did.

We enjoyed some shopping at Goodwill and then had Italian food for dinner. Correction--I had Italian food for dinner; my children ate food off of the kids menu. We talked about the day, played tic-tac-toe and my children only needed occasional reminders about keeping the rowdiness to a minimum. At one point a woman from across the aisle caught my eye and smiled. Another couple smiled and giggled at the kids. A woman in the bathroom laughed and chatted with my daughter about her kitty boots. When you have young children, this happens a lot...people see you having moments with your children and it reminds them of when their children were young and they remind you that it will go so fast. From the time my kids were babies, I liked that they were able to bring others joy just by simply BEING. Babies and young children do that. I notice it now that my kids aren't babies anymore. Seeing babies reminds me of those days with a infant carrier in the Target cart. I smile knowingly and reminisce. It does go fast.

And as sweet as those baby days are, it's pretty fun to take your kids (without a diaper bag or half the house) on a Monday night trip to Goodwill and sing along to Def Leppard and just hang out.

This part is pretty amazing.

And it will go fast.

And someday I will be in a restaurant striking up conversation with a young mom and her child and it will remind me of tonight.

And my heart will be glad.