Good Morning, Sunshine!

My number one goal as a mom is to inspire my kids, to make lasting memories with them, and to make sure that they enjoy life. But I realized this morning that sometimes I get so caught up in making plans that I miss the little moments. In fact, not five minutes ago, I was checking emails and saw the schedule from one of my mom's groups. It had our playdate schedule attached and it was scheduled until May. I had to stop for a minute. I had to stop when I looked at this schedule with dates for four months from now. I had to stop because I couldn't even imagine what we will be doing in four months, what my kids will even like to do, four months seemed like a lifetime. It struck me that so much can happen in four months because just this morning, as I was waking up, I looked around and couldn't even believe the change that has happened in the past few months.

I woke up at 6:30 to my beautiful two year old cuddling up next to me asking me for blankets. I tried to move the blanket and when it didn't move I realized my three year old was sleeping on top of it. My six month old started wiggling in my arms trying to find the pacifier that had fallen out of his mouth sometime during the night. It was right then that I just had to stop and enjoy the moment. I watched as my beautiful babies slept, watched as their beautiful long eye lashes started to flutter when they were dreaming,  and my heart was so full. When they woke up we played "I Spy" (yup, right there in the bed), then we played a game while we made breakfast (eating things that only started with the letter "G"), and as I put them in the tub to give them a bath my six month old joined them in the big tub (sitting up by himself, splashing his little heart out, and laughing right along with them). When did this happen? When did they get this old where I can do things like play "I Spy" and alphabet games and I have three littles in the tub pretending to swim?

I really needed that this morning, especially when I checked my email and saw the playdate list. My morning was just a little reminder that it doesn't take a playdate to have fun with your babies, just play. You don't have to do anything to make them grow up, they do that all on their own. Sometimes when you're so busy planning, so busy rushing out of the house to get to the scheduled playdate, you miss out on the moments that fill your heart. So, yes, we will go to play dates, but we don't have to make every single one. We will plan our activities, but sometimes we will do something different. I will keep a schedule, but enjoy the days when it doesn't go exactly as planned. And I won't miss out on these beautiful, wonderful, heart-filling moments while my babies grow up.

I don't want to do anything today...let's just be lazy!

Game Night!

One of my fondest memories of growing up was playing games with my family. We didn't have cable TV or even the Internet until I was a junior in high school (I'm only 26, so we were behind the times), and we had to find some way to occupy ourselves. I cherish these moments I had with my family. The laughter, the conversations, the teamwork, you just don't get that sitting around a television screen. So I will start a game night with my family. We will cherish the time we have when my hubby gets home from work, and we will laugh and learn with and from each other! I'm so ready to put the remote down, this is going to be fun!!!

Family game night for this week will include:
Simon Says
Memory
Making Thanksgiving cards to bring to our family and friends

Idle hands really are the devil's playground...

I'm always amazed when my Bible Study moms pull out their calenders so we can schedule a girl's night out. The days are packed! I never really thought about why until Rob came home from his first few days of teaching 4th grade completely defeated. The first words out of my mouth were, "You just have to keep them busy. You can't stop for a minute!" I swear it was like the heavens opened. I got it! I finally understood why I have something solid scheduled for 3 days of the week and fill the others with playdates with whatever friends are available or "special" activities for me and the kids to do.

We have a yearly zoo pass, a stockpile of Chuck E. Cheese tokens, and I even have a list of the kids' favorite places to go that I keep handy for those "I need to get the kids out of the house NOW" moments. Chick-fil-A for breakfast is pretty common since they can play on the playground while I enjoy my coffee, do some Bible Study, or read a good book. The BREC indoor playground has become a favorite place for playdates since it is gated off and there is so much for the kids to do we mommies can have around 3 hours of adult conversation without worrying about children wandering off. I will even go to the mall before it opens since there's no crowd but the mall is open for employees (and those cute mall-walkers).Now I'm not saying you have to spend every single second out of your house. In fact, if you walk into my house at any point during the day it will look like a day care in here! Why? Because it IS a day care!

Our home is where our kids play, learn, and live! We have a playroom upstairs where I keep their "mess". I go up there no more than once a week to clean and the kids can just do what they want to do. BUT that is not the only place we have toys. We have a "play" section in every room of our house. A box of toys will even make it's way into our master bedroom and bathroom on occasion. The kids wander from room to room pulling out whatever they want and rarely put one thing back before getting out something else. And it will stay that way until they go to sleep because I do not follow them around all day picking up the trail of mess behind them. Usually I am on the floor beside them making the mess too. Even though my house may look like a toy store exploded (and most of the toys look like casualties of war), I get more joy at the end of the day looking at this hot mess of a house than I ever did looking around at a house where everything was perfectly in place.

In fact the days when I tried to keep everything perfectly in place were the most stressful, most unenjoyable moments of my entire life. It is literally like trying to follow after a tornado to clean up after it. Not only that, but imagine that after that tornado passes another comes through and then another and another and another. Yeah, spare yourself the stress! Learn to not only love the mess, but learn to help make it!