leave only love

I find myself in a different season than most of the stay at home moms, and mommy bloggers out there.  i'm not changing diapers or chasing toddlers, but as i was cleaning up the house i was pondering how things have changed, but are yet still so much of the same.  i am no longer constantly wiping hand prints from the windows, or picking up legos....but i am still cleaning the disgusting underside of the toilet seat (but thankfully no longer the walls...there is better aim at the end of the tunnel, Moms), crumbs off the table, toothpaste splatters on the mirror.  i got to thinking how i was going to PUUUREEEACH to my kids when they came downstairs in between video games to get a snack.  i started planning out my speech about how I am not their mother and I don't need to pick up after them all the time...but yeah...I am their mother and eeek...I am the one who has trained them into this pattern.  I shrugged and continued cleaning because the circle back took me to "oh yeah, it's easier to just do it yourself than train them better."  

and side note....my teen boys are AMAZING.  i am certainly not saying they are anything but that....but they are boys.

so my thoughts went on to how these boys are so quickly becoming men....how their future roommates might appreciate it if i took the time to train them a bit more (actually their roommates will be boys who probably live just like they do) but their future wives would definitely love it if i would make the effort to polish them up a bit more, because truly they are already golden!  

so i started rewriting the speech in my head, planning our future conversation and training sessions.  i am not one to have chore lists and assignments for my kids (though we have had those in seasons, right now with schedules it is just a complicated mess) so i was thinking how i just want them to NOTICE stuff that needs to be done and do it.  and how if we all just cleaned up after ourselves, there would be much less for mom to do.....so then i could just watch Netflix and eat ice cream out of the carton while they were at school.  

i began formulating a plan about "leave no trace".  they are familiar with this because when we go backpacking and camping we practice it.  we pack out what we pack in....and leave the sites and trails how we found them...only i wanted MORE from them.  i want them to leave things better.  and we actually practice that more....we often build better fire rings, or find the perfect stove rocks, or make natural tables and chairs...whatever makes our camping experience better we leave for the next family too.  and that is what i want to train my kids to do in home...in school....in life.  leave it better....don't leave trash, or crumbs, or bad attitudes, or messes, or dirty looks....leave smiles, clean toilet seats, chairs pushed in, their dish and the unclaimed cup in the sink...washed, leave love.  let their snail trail be sparkles...not just slime.....(perspective...when the sunlight hits the slime it glistens and is beautiful.....when SONLIGHT shines in my life, I leave only love)