The good old days.

In the last episode of The Office,  Andy says "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days, before you've actually left them."

Since hearing that, The Hubs and I will half-jokingly remark this whenever we see fit, usually when Sass is being a typical teenage girl or when the dog poops on the floor, or insert any typical family drama here.

Lately, though, we have both been more aware of how accurate Andy is.

For most accounts, we don't realize we're in the "good old days", until they are long gone.

I realized recently, however, that maybe The Hubs and I are at the "good old days" stage of life.

Both our kids are still at home (barely), we are both in the middle of our careers and our parents are all still healthy.

Relatively speaking, life is pretty darn good!

We are beyond blessed.

These ARE our golden years.

And it's kind of scary.

Not that I'm disappointed in the least. In fact, I am sometimes overwhelmed at how gracious God has been.

It's scary, because I know they won't last forever. 

Not the way they are now, anyway.

One of my first blog posts was about how poorly I was handling the fact that Sass leaves for college next fall (read here).

I'm still not sure how I will handle that, although I sometimes think she is preparing me to let go by driving me absolutely crazy first…:)

But I know this stage won't last forever, just like the baby stage didn't.
And it hurts a little.

My sweet husband tells me once the kids are gone, we'll get to do all the stuff we never could before and have the money to fix the house the way we want it and other lies to try to comfort me.

And I appreciate his attempts, I truly do, but I know what it's like to look back at those baby pictures and yearn to hold that sweet baby face close to yours just once more--so what's it going to be like to have more pictures to yearn for???

I'm being ridiculous, I know.

Life is sweet, but fleeting.

Maybe it's the last glow of the Christmas tree that will come down tomorrow that is making me so nostalgic.
Or maybe it's the post-holiday blues that like to creep in when you've been awake too long.

Whatever it is, the good old days are bittersweet, even when you are in the midst of them.
I don't know the secret on how to savor every last minute of them other than to try.

This little gem has been circulating on Facebook the past few days. It has been shared from renowned children's author and illustrator, Patricia Polacco's FB page.  It sums up perfectly how these good old days Andy speaks of in The Office are gone in a flash, so you better relish them while you can!