The Tree Swing

The bare patch demonstrates how much the swing is coveted.

Here we are on the second to last night in the house that has kept us safe and warm (well actually usually too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter…darn old houses) for the last 8 years. This is the only home our girls have known, Ella moved here when she was 5 months old. We have put a lot of sweat and money into this house and we have adored raising our family in this home. I am going to miss it so much!

When I think of one thing I am going to miss the most, oddly enough it is not even inside the house, it is the tree swing in the backyard. That swing has provided our girls with countless hours of thrills. That old cherry tree, which blooms after all the other cherry trees in the city have started to drop their blossoms and starts dropping its leaves far earlier than it should, has proven the test of time with keeping that swing tied securely to its branches.

We have found a million ways to twist and twirl, under duck and test the limits on just how high we can push the girls, always to screams of delight. Well nearly always…there was one time when I was swinging Ella by her ankles pretending she was an axe chopping the tree and lets just say I accidentally demonstrated she is not an effective axe, but she does bounce fairly well off the trunk. I am fairly sure Ella will never let me forget that one. But generally it has been laughter that swing has brought to our family.

The swing also functions as a highly effective delay tactic. Nearly every morning, when I am rushing the girls out the door to school, at least one, if not both, of them would jump on the swing on their stomach and do everything they can to delay getting themselves to the car. Which of course usually results in my impatiently, and not always so quietly, prompting to get their butt moving in the direction I want them to head. That swing has played a nearly daily role in our family for eight years.

I can’t believe I am being sentimental about a tree swing, but what can I say, I am the one who cries like a baby to sentimental commercials. I suppose it is not really just about the swing, but how our home has been a wonderful space for us to create eight years of amazing memories. I can’t believe how hard it is hitting me that we are saying good-bye to our home this week. Here is looking forward to what the next chapter holds and we will always have the memories this house has played in the story of our family.

~Janet