A Letter to my younger self.

Country signer Brad Paisley has a song entitled, "if I could write a letter to me".  He writes a letter to himself at 17, and gives advice to his much younger self. 

My life has changed a lot and not much in the past nine years.  We still live in the same house and we're still the same people, but we're all older, and in same ways, wiser. 

If I could write a letter to my almost twenty-seven year old self, it would go a little like this:

1.  No matter what your dad tells you, you're not going to miss this.  Truthfully, you're not even going to remember the crazy pace of life with a baby, a two-year old, and a kindergardner.  Take lots of pictures, the rest will be a blur. 
    a.  You are going to miss your evenings.  Your kids go to bed at 7:00pm, but in nine years, you'll be
         running those babies around to sports practices, games, gymnastics, and school events past 9:00pm.
         The horror.
     b.  You are going to miss the fact that your kids, right now, are very affordable.  They don't each much. 
          They don't play sports.  They've never heard of Ugg boots.  They're happy wearing hand-me-downs.
     c.   You're going to love your kids as they grow up.  You're going to love having real conversations with
           them.  They get even more enjoyable the older they get.

2.  You won't always be this poor.  Keep your head up.  You're not going to starve.  Your bills will get paid.  Don't stress your husband out about money.  He's working hard for you, and before you know it, his integrity will result in more clients than he ever thought possible. 

3.  Don't sweat the small stuff. 
     a.  While it's important that you feed your kids healthy food, you need to find balance.  They will be
          hanging out with friends and you want them to make good choices.  If you over-control, they will
          go crazy when they find a little freedom. 
     b.  You can't always protect these little ones of yours.  Remember the time you took all three to the 
          doctor?  Two had pneumonia and one needed a cat scan.  They will get hurt again.  Badly.  It will
          be okay, just keep praying for them.  

4.  All your hard work will pay off.  You'll get a call from your son's nurse telling you how much she appreciated his politeness.  She literally says the words, "kids like him make my job worth it".  Success.

5.  That baby that surprised you?  You're going to love her like crazy. 

6.  Make sure you make time for your husband.  Your life is going to get so much more crazy.  You'll barely see each other some weeks.  Keep taking vacations with just the two of you.  You'll need it. 

7.  Before you know it, your kids will all be in school.  You're not going to have a perfectly clean house.  You won't lose all of your baby weight.  Just give it up. 

The funny thing is, that probably in nine years, I'll figure out that I didn't know anything at this point in my life.  

If you could write a letter to your younger self - what would you write?