She brought me a flower, a weed from our lawn, but I made a big deal over its “beauty” and tucked it behind my ear…in my “hey-a.”

* That would be my HAIR 😉

The idea must have seemed quite appealing because as I turned to snap another picture of what we were supposed to be focusing on, I heard, “MY hey-a.”

My iris…ugh.

She was placing petals on her head. Petals from my newly opened blossoms.

Oh well…

This is our 2nd spring in our home. Our irises didn’t bloom much last year. I call them “ours” because, well, they are, but we didn’t plant them. They were here when we moved in and are new to me so I was surprised with the different variation of colors we were seeing. I was out taking pictures with my smallest “helper.” She’s two.

I’m down a couple of irises now, but their empty stalks will match my barren rose bushes and the big tub of flowers we HAD planted in front of the house. I frequently visit the clearance section of most lawn and garden departments…for obvious reasons.

One day I will have a yard full of beautiful flowers.

I will also have vines of red, not just green and pink, strawberries.

One day, my blueberries will actually be allowed to, indeed, turn blue.

I will harvest red tomatoes. They won’t be picked JUST as they start to turn orange.

One day, all the apples and peaches on the trees will be able to hang until they are just about ready to release on their own.

Our fig tree hasn’t started sprouting fruit yet. Who knows what is in store for it.

One day, the youthful impatience will pass from my house and I will enjoy all of these wonderful splendors that are plucked so prematurely now.

But you know what…

Ripe fruit and beautiful flowers will be replacing chalk drawings on my driveway, along with mud pies and sand cakes, decorated with delicate buds. Gone will be the wagon full of tadpoles, the jars of snails, caterpillars, and earthworms. My lawn won’t be littered with toys, lost shoes, and broken egg shells that never made it from the hens’ nests all the way into the house.

The inside of my home will be tidy and clean because the smudgy nose and handprints will be gone. The blasted Legos will probably be missed…maybe. The silly giggles of children sneaking a leap, when no one is looking, from the coffee table onto the bouncy softness of the ripped, stained sofa will disappear too. The knocked over sippy cups that startle parents awake as they hit the floor in the night, bad dreams, and monsters in the closet…will fade away.

One day, my life will be full of a new beauty, the fresh aroma of flowers that are allowed to reach their prime and a counter full of fully ripe tomatoes, but it will be replacing the beauty of 4 young, inquistive, spunky girls that…

try as they might…

just can’t pass up that beautiful little bud…

or wait the eternity that is a few hours of day light for that piece of fruit to reach its perfection.

I’m just not sure that I am ready to rush one beauty for the other.

So until then, I will continue to remind them how much better the fruit will taste and how much longer the flower will last if we just wait…

and I will wait…

I will watch them struggle with the forever of 5 minutes before they devour the bitter treat or place the petals on their homemade “birthday cake” that I get to “taste” with a sand-covered shovel spoon…

and I will sigh and smile because this is my “now,” and it is beautiful.