To Everything There is a Season

Ever feel like you are just drifting thru life?? Lately I feel like I am just barely getting thru it. Everyday swirls into the next and I still have the same 5, er 10 things on my To Do list {like this blog}. I am constantly playing "catch-up". Picking the MUST DOs, ignoring the SHOULD DOs & just doing the minimal to get by. Just enough laundry so everyone can wear clean sox and undies (though in Berkes case we are treading a thin line---3yrs and semi-potty-trained... ughh); just enough cleaning that I don't feel completely frustrated by the whirlwind that transforms my house back to chaos (case in point-- 4 glasses of dumped strawberry lemonade hit the floor between 3 kids within 10 minutes---hmmmm remind me why I love lids??); just enough time with each kid to know they are loved, before I shoo them away so I can finish up the dishes, or refold the laundry I didn't put away, which now scatters the floors--but not enough time to read Forrest the storybook he has been carrying around the house. I know this is a typical mom/wife/woman/human thing. Finding balance. Finding time. Doing it all or Making people think you do it all. The reality is we can't do everything perfect all the time. There is a time and season for everything.

I recently read a talk by E. Ballard, in it he shares a quote by Author Anna Quindlen in her book, Loud and Clear. She reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She says:

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less” (Loud and Clear[2004], 10–11).

Something to think about as my nights and days are all scrambled together. Yes I am a night owl, but only 4nights/week. The other days I crash early with Forrest. Yet here it is nearly 3am & I still need to tidy the house. Get things a bit organized before tomorrow.... or wait--I think that will go on my "TO DO" list too....