Yesterday I put away all my extra "stuff" early before my sleepy-eyed children gathered for scriptures.
I opted to pull out the cereal rather than making a fuss with pancakes or waffles and squeezed in between two of them to listen in as they read a few verses. Dave asked me to offer the prayer on our breakfast and I did. I added in how grateful we are to be a family. And to have our Dad who takes care of so much. And I prayed that we could all make good decisions and look out for those who may need extra help.
I looked into Max's eyes before he ran off to catch the bus. "How I love him." I thought.
Then I watched my stringy-haired girls interact at breakfast. I asked them thought-out questions and we laughed about Lucy's obsession with the alphabet.
I whispered to Claire to check out how handsome her dad is and her eyes lit up.
I cradled Lucy's cheeks in the palms of my hands and told her how I love her.
We even carved out some time to admire their school pictures before they took off happily for school.
It was the same as every other morning. We make lunches. We rush around to get things in. We cram in the last little bits of homework and "agenda" signing.
But the difference is that yesterday morning I was "there." My mind and heart wrapped tight around those children and that husband instead of spread over fifty different "to-do" items.
Today it was back to the madness again. Two alarms did not go off and I had a Young Women letter I had to print and get in the mail and a salad for the junior high teacher appreciation lunch to be dropped off before nine. Grace was in tears because she forgot to bring home part of her homework she wanted me to check and she got all grumpy because I didn't want her to wear her tight, short cut-off shorts to school for "Hippy Day."
Today wasn't so good, but gradually I'm trying to train myself to be the "present" mom I was yesterday, especially since I got this insight from a wise blog reader the other day:
"What is interesting is most really don’t know how or what being 'present' is. Think of an example in your life...when your child got hurt...or your pet...or you see a beautiful view that stops you...the birth of your children...or a moment when the full force of a beautiful piece of music hits you...in each of those moments...where was your thinking mind? It was quiet. It was completely still and present. (Of course when the moment passed...what happened...your mind starts up again and our addiction to thinking returns!) It truly is possible...to be that still all day long."
I'm trying to keep my mind "quiet" so that I can live in the moments more. And it makes a difference for our whole family.Labels: moments
