This week I found my life hectic and busy, and seemingly not very simple! Preparing everything for us to go on this trip, while leaving my garden during a late-arriving harvest time and committing to leave my blog for two full weeks, made for a very full schedule.
For my children’s sake, I made a special effort to purposefully take snippets of time over the course of the past few days to just enjoy being with them. I would put away my to-do list, my canning and baking, my blog work, etc. and just curl up on the couch to read them a chapter from Little House in the Big Woods (our current read-aloud). Or we’d spend 20 minutes outside before naptime, so that Abbie could ride her bike and I could help Caden practice walking on the lawn. Or we’d sit down at the computer and take 10 minutes to watch a few clips from Everyday News. Or just snuggle for a few moments in bed, before they took their naps.
It didn’t matter what we did. The point was to just stop and savour the moment, the here and now of being with my children, regardless of how many things I had to do. It’s so easy to put off something as important as enjoying my children because my day is too full and rushed. How often have I let a day or two go by without making a point of simply cherishing them and the fact that I am with them?
Life gets busy sometimes. It’s inevitable, no matter how simply we endeavor to live. I want to learn to reclaim simple pleasures, to be fully present in the moment I am in and to cultivate a heart of thankfulness to God for whatever He has given me.
On this note, I would thoroughly recommend two posts from Crystal this week in her series Embrace Today. They were such an encouragement to me in this area, and a reminder to choose contentment and joy, no matter what season of life we are in.
Gretchen
September 13, 2008 at 4:45 AMI definitely need to be better at just setting aside time to enjoy my children. Thank you for the post.