What I learned this week from Punky Brewster

Remember that spunky little tyke from the eighties, with her crazy clothes and Bohemian style... abandoned by her mom in a supermarket with her trusty dog, she is able to forge cheerfully ahead with her life, charming a crusty old coot and creating a new family for herself, all the while spouting adorable tidbits of wisdom beyond her freckle-faced years?

Yeah, that Punky. Well, she is out promoting her new book Happy Chaos and dishing up advice on motherhood and family this week. Okay, okay it's really actress Soleil Moon Frye, all grown up and married and with kids of her own. Still. I happened to catch her in an interview on The Today Show, and something she said actually resonated with me and made sense. She was talking about the chaos and clutter, both literally and figuratively, that make up the years you spend with your small children. She said something about embracing the chaos, because it will be gone before you know it... I'm paraphrasing wildly here... and living for the time we're in with our kids now.

Wow. That's good advice, Punky.

Up until two years ago, I had gotten pretty good at living in a non-chaotic house. We had a lot of activities etc., but our actual house was reasonably peaceful. Peaceful and clean. Then some crazy notion hit me about having an empty nest... soon! I freaked out. I wasn't ready for that! And I'm still not. I love, love, love having more littles around. Alas, I tend to get pretty worked up sometimes about the mess and yes, the CHAOS of our home. But little Punky was right... or maybe it's grown up Soleil... anyway, it's time for me to embrace the chaos. Because it will be over way too soon. And even though I'll be sixty-two years old when Thomas graduates from high school, I bet I'll still be sad that my nest is going to be empty.