A dream is a wish your heart makes

The dream song is a song from the Disney movie Cinderella.   

But I think it works as a sort of bucket/ wish list song too.

I am so often dreaming- day dreaming that is, about what I wish I could do.  Or want to do.   

When we had a houseful of kids my life was full of laundry, cleaning house, taking someone/ everyone somewhere.  Dentist appointments and later the orthodontist.  Doctor appointments for well visits sometimes and more likely sick visits.   School activities.  Band.  Sports. Friends houses.   Visiting my friends for coffee and play groups

Easter egg hunts! And visits to the zoo!

 

 

The kid's friends were often at our house and we would have a mob at the dinner table.   And honestly, I mostly enjoyed it.  Sometimes, at least in my memories, I loved it.   

All five kids accompanied me to La Leche League meetings when they were young and still nursing.

 

 

But I am guessing that at least once a day I would wish for some down time.  Time to sew or knit or read a book, or watch TV alone.  It was a lot!  

I am glad that when I remember and when I write about it I am not feeling overwhelmed, but wistful and happy.   

All those kids.  Busy, bored, unhappy, dirty, demanding and rewarding.  All rolled up in one.   I wished for kids.  Babies.  Children who challenged my patience and endurance and intellect too.

 I credit La Leche League (LLL) with helping me raise my family, not go crazy, have friends to vent to.  And wonderful lifetime friends to grow old with.  Besides my husband and my sister, the most meaningful relationships I have are with women I have met through LLL 

And now all of the kids are grown and independent and it's just me and Nick and Carol (my sister)

 

 

 

And what do I dream about now?  I dream about visiting all of the places in the world where we have lived.   I have friends in some of those places who I would love to see and visit with for a while.

I wonder which of the houses we lived in are still standing?  I know that our house in Tromsø is still there and the one in Perth, Western Australia.  I think that the house we lived in when we were in Poland is still there.  The two homes we had in Thailand, one in Bangkok and actually 2 in Chiang Mai, Thailand are most likely gone.  Taiwan and China?   Somehow I don't feel the same emotional pull to those homes.

I also, more realistically, want to visit each of the kids in their homes!

 Of course the biggest dream, to be a grandmother, did come true!