Last night, with a list a mile and a half long of things I should have been doing, I decided to say PHEWY on it. It would all be there when I got to it later... piling up, but still there.
I picked my daughter up from school yesterday, I was missing her ~ I'm not sure why, but more so than normal. So I picked her up and for the last hour of work, I thought it would be nice to have her with me, helping untangle the lights to hang in City Hall. Well, my grand plan and her intentions were not on the same page. In City Hall there is also the library. She would much rather find a book, than untangle lights with mom. Alright fine. We will compromise. She'll get her book and I'll untangle the lights .... or something like that.
We arrived home to pull out home work, begin dinner and talk. This is our "routine". I putter in the kitchen and she works on homework, pulling me over, sometimes often for help, guidance or just because she wants to share something about her day.
Last night as I was puttering and helping her along I realized what a gift it is to have a child who loves to learn. Who enjoys new things, who isn't afraid to try and is so excited when they "get it". The joy in being a mom.
We had dinner and then decided that we'd work on the knitting loom, which sounds rather primitive, but in actuality is rather modern. A plastic do'hicky you wrap yarn around to make a scarf. The instructions so tiny we couldn't read them with a spy glass. So we did what two modern chicks in today's world do... we YOUTUBED it. We found a video that walked us through the steps and we were off and going. About the time we bored of that, I mentioned to Charlie Mae that while on YOUTUBE I had something I wanted to share with her from when I was a kid. Something that I loved at Christmas time and had not seen in many MANYYYYYY years. "Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas" ohhhhh yes, memories came flooding back. I clicked on the clip "Ain't no hole in the washtub" where Emmet and his mother sing. They are horrible, I mean really (really) bad, but we loved it. We clicked on a couple more video clips and watched together. Charlie Mae cuddled in tight, us laughing and enjoying. Simply being together. We spent the evening going from one little project & moment to the next. She offered up a favorite song she's been listening too. We found it and as she sang and I watched and listened we laughed.
At the end of the night, curled up together in her bed saying prayers and saying good night I tell her I need to scoot, I was tired and needed a good nights sleep. She says "I want you to stay" and I say "Baby it's cold outside" and so we began a rendition of our musical production "Baby it's cold outside" as we lie in her tent (yes, that is correct, tent up on top of bed) on her bed laughing and singing.
SIMPLE PLEASURES.
I love (love) that it does not take purchasing expensive items, trips to exciting places or grand gestures for my children to appreciate something so much more valuable than anything I could buy for them... they simply appreciate TIME TOGETHER. And so do I!
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
What a gift when God allows us to push those nagging things off to the side to indulge and enjoy the moments. Not that I will or can continue to keep pushing my "to do" list, but there is something very nice about allowing myself to do that from time to time. To enjoy the simple things in life, like laughing, singing poorly and loving on a child. This momma is feeling abundantly blessed today ~ oh later I may equally be feeling overwhelmed as there are only 15 days until Christmas. Keeping it all in perspective, I'm prayerful over my time, over my Christmas intentions and over my remembering the Reason For The Season.