Good Mom

One day recently we had a snow day. Well, actually it was a “bitter cold, sub-zero temp” day, but you get the idea.

I was psyched! Not only was it a day off of school for the boys, but for me as well. I had a to-do list a mile long and this day was like a freebie…a gift, given in the spoken name of “bitter cold”, but surely it was secretly straight to me from God in the name of “too much to do and not enough time to get it done”!

My list, as I mentioned, was l..oo..nnn…gggg…..
(and, I might add, unrealistic!)

It went something like this:
1. return calls
2. return emails
3. do laundry
4. take down the outside (dead!) greenery
5. straighten house
6. get cards ready to mail
7. organize office
8. go to Target
9. go to Post Office
10. go to grocery

But do you know what? I didn’t do a darn thing on that list that day! Not one last thing!

Instead I slept in (a gift straight from heaven!). And when I did wake up, I dozed off and on for an hour and a half while one of my boys snuggled next to me, playing his DS, and giving his commentary on the news as it aired. See, the boys are getting older and the days of snuggling are fleeting I know. When we finally did get our lazy hineys out of the bed, we lounged in our jammies, made a leisurely breakfast, watched 2 movies on TV, folded laundry (the little bit I could muster the energy to do) while we laughed and basically piddled the day away.

The truth is that I put my list second to my children by conscience choice. I am trying to strike what I consider a happy balance between my children thinking that they (and their dad) are the most important things in my life and realizing that the world does not revolve around them. This is quite a delicate balance to achieve! But now and then I want them to see that I dropped everything just to be with them, enjoying their company, and I hope they will look back on it twenty years from now with really fond memories.

While I do know that time is a gift from God, not to be squandered, I don’t view that that’s what I did on the day in question.

I see it like this: I got nothing done that the world would judge as productive. (Sorry Stephen Covey...no "first things first") In the world’s view maybe I didn’t spend my time well, but I know that I did invest my time well. And I invested it with such a high rate of return that it would send Wall Street guys runnin’! (So maybe it was "first things first" after all!)

So while I can cross nothing off of my list that was an errand or a household chore, I think I’ll add: #11. Good Mom… just so I can cross it off!

1. return calls
2. return emails
3. do laundry
4. take down the outside (dead!) greenery
5. straighten house
6. get cards ready to mail
7. organize office
8. go to Target
9. go to Post Office
10.go to grocery
11. be a good mom


Question: When have you dropped everything for the sake of your kids? How did it make you, and them, feel?