Getting Old

Today was a realization of my age. I spent some time today looking at assisted living facilities online for my father and mother-in-law. When Dad gets out of the hospital in the next week or two he most likely will have to be in an assisted living center. It was my first exposure to these kinds of places. I can see a complicated decision for Rick's family in the near future.

Then this morning I started cleaning out our homeschool cabinet. We have not used many things in there for the last 3 or 4 years so it was time to empty it out, throw a lot away, give some of it to my granddaughter and just rearrange. It took a lot of time and it was like walking down memory lane. There were many things from preschool years with the children. Crayons, stamps, clay, stencils, etc. All things that saw a lot of use, was it just yesterday or years ago. In my mind I see Kate sitting at the table coloring or making a book with stamps and construction paper. Some of those treasures surfaced today. It made me feel old. My oldest child is nearing 30. How did that happen. My youngest will be an official teenager in just a couple months. Did I just jump over a few years, not pass go and not collect the money! It sure feels like it.

So in a state of depression I drove to the grocery store to buy cat food and while I was there I decided to pick up a six pack. No, not your usual six pack, but a six pack of diet Dr. Pepper. My favorite soda. I figured I could go home, have one for lunch with chips and then hide the rest so none of my kids would say it's not fair that I got pop and they didn't. That's an old parenting technique that goes back a long ways.

On the drive home, I'm feeling depressed, feeling old and tired and I see a bumper sticker on the car ahead of me. It says, "Inside every old person is a young person" . Wow, I think, that is certainly true. Then I get closer and read the small print. "Inside every old person is a young person, wondering how it happened". I laugh the rest of the way home!