Warm and Fuzzy Feeling

I have never been a fan of this expression of warm and fuzzy. It's weird 

Last night though there was no other way to describe the scenes in front of me and how they made me feel. It was simply - warm and fuzzy in my heart :)

We hosted a late Easter celebration at our house with Hubby’s side of the family with little kids. And for the first time we invited our kid’s boyfriend and girlfriend and friend to join in a family holiday.

And it was amazing 

Beauty brought Simon (yup she has a boyfriend for 4 months now at her tender age of 15)

Bear brought Catherine. Second time we have met her now 

Chase brought his friend Mathieu (aka our adopted son since forever!! )

We did an easter hunt for the little kids that my  mom graciously stuffed all the eggs for and Catherine and Bear his them all around the house. Then we did an Easter hunt for the teens. 

We are yummy food and played a great game all together. Simon and Catherine played piano for us. We played basketball outside between rain showers. We watched all our little great nieces and nephews be kids and be adorable.

Simon is great. He and beauty so cute together and he is so good to her. They adore eachother. Such a kind and gentle and respectful and handsome guy. And beautiful piano player. It was fun to see him with our boys too 

Ignore Chase glasses -its a joke 

Catherine. Smart... Beautiful. Kind. Funny. Everything. Her and Bear are a great match. And she made us delicious cookies too! Great girl and can see that she and I will get along very very well!

What I loved most about this evening was seeing the future. The future ahead of us with our table big and extended and people around us. Our kids as young adults - discovering themselves and their partners and what they want to be in life and with whom. 

I hold it is my highest privilege and honour that we get to be part of this and have it as part of my life.

These years are so incredibly precious to us. Watching them. Learning from them.

Getting to be part of it all 

Lately I have been thinking of an analogy to describe how I am feeling about my kids staying home throughout university years vs moving away in those years. I think about this often as Chase is at that age now and also I have close family and friends in the USA where this is much more expected and customary for kids to leave home at this age. Here in Quebec it is the opposite - kids generally live with their parents until finish undergraduate degree and maybe even master’s degree when applicable 

So I hear many differing stories and opinions and ways of doing things and make me think a lot about my own preferences. Mine shift a lot as hard to have a 19.5 yr. old at home and comes with many pros and cons on any given day of the week. Sometimes I love it and sometimes it makes me go crazy 

But above all the most things I like about it are the family times together. Often. Regularly. Knowing their friends and partners intimately. Having them come in our room almost nightly and share their lives. It trumps all the inconvenience and pros for us 

My analogy is being an Entrepreneur. There are so many things I miss about working in a big corporate Pharma company. So many things. What trumps is all is flexibility in my schedule now all the time. No matter what - that HUGE advantage tops it all off for sure. It makes it all worth it to be an entrepreneur and get to decide whatever I want when I want 

So that's how I feel about Chase staying here in university (for today anyways!) is that we want it. Really badly. Much more than any other aspect . We want all of them to stay home I think (I think!) as I can't even imagine having missed last night and the feelings that come with it all. It trumps everything for me 

And this morning hubby woke up and he said " wasn't that the very best evening?? " and every part of me agreed 

It was worth all the prep and all the work and all the staying home form the cottage. It was worth the entire cleanup and all the chaos. It was worth it all.

Family time with our little family and out larger extended family is where it is at in my heart right now. It's what I have always wanted. I may be big into career right now - maybe always. I may not be domestic or do dishes or feel the need to cook, but my heart has always been and will always be at home. With my beautiful family .

And this week with Chase studying like crazy for finals and home a lot and me working at home a lot each in our cozy chairs side by side in the living room and then taking breaks for snack and lunch and chats? (and laughing and planning about so many things in his life) …I feel this week like the luckiest Mom alive. It's a damn hard, complex but oh so beautiful and fun stage.

PS -wrote two blogs today so scroll down)