space for simple moments

If found this gem with that On This Day feature on Facebook (which I have a love/hate relationship). I love the memories, but sigh, seeing the passage of time sometimes leaves me with that nostalgia that we get as moms. And when I read this all I could think was thank goodness at least once I slowed down. I hope it blesses you today. ~Rachel 1/16

I spent the weekend cleaning, still catching up from the crazy busy days, and wanting to find a bit of normal and organization. I moved from room to room to room sorting boxes of mismatched toys, folding socks, putting books on the shelf, and throwing away. By Sunday night I was exhausted and the screen on my computer stared at me blankly – almost taunting – with my word document empty and no post showing.

I’ll write in the morning, I kept telling myself, and then went to bed.

Then, in the middle of the night sweet cries of Is it Morning Momma? woke me at 2:45 to find Samuel sitting in those new blue spiderman pajamas on the floor in the hallway outside of his room. So I scooped him up, told him I love you’s, sat in the room with him singing him songs, and staying there awake till sleep came back for him.

I’ll just sleep a bit more, I told myself again.

And morning came, and I slept until Samuel woke up, and I immediately felt behind. My word document still sat open with no words shared. After the little kids got some breakfast and scampered upstairs, I sat on our old worn plaid couch and attempted writing. I had this entire post written in my head that I wrote at 4 am while resting on the floor in Samuel’s room. But that post? Those words will have to wait.

Sit on you momma?

It was Samuel.

I told him to sit next to me and snuggle into me so that I could finish writing and catching up on email.

No, momma. Sit on you.

And with a contented sigh, and a remember of my words Carry Me Momma? from last Monday I picked up that three year old and let him nestle in my arms.

The words can wait.

For a time like this, this freezing morning in Minnesota, the time was for me to not need to have everything perfect, but was rather to sit there with Samuel on my lap. And I did, with no rushing agenda, with no thoughts of 102 things that I need to do, but rather with Samuel there, sitting, telling me his stories.

There are times in life where I don’t have the space to say yes so freely and no to my current to-do list. But, today, on this early Monday morning,  it was about putting family first and taking five minutes, because that is all it was, for Samuel to just be with me. He sat there, content to be, and there was no agenda.

It was filling his cup first.

So often it’s easy to rush through the day and to fill and fix everything before filling our children’s cups. We’ll tell them in a minute or after lunch or as soon as I finish this or not right now or take a nap first or hold on and then we’ll get to the end of the day and those minutes never really happened. Our kids still love us, they still want that time, but our urgents pushed the real importants to the side. And sometimes that needs to happen – life is just like that – but when that becomes a habit we miss the five minutes of sweetness found in holding a three year old in the morning, or sitting with a five year old as he tells a story, or listening to your twelve year old’s list of dreams.

I know I’ve told it to you before – the putting your family on the list – thought, but today I’m going to gently encourage you to create white space in your day for those simple moments where family needs to come first. White space? It’s just a schedule or a to-do list lined with grace – extra time buffers in there that allow for moments like my morning.

If all of life was linear the moments would be lost.

Joy moments are truly embedded within the day – whispers of I love you here, and a hug there, and the seconds of sun sparkling through the window creating a rainbow on the floor, and the books all lined up perfectly for just a second, and hugs on a couch where they just want to sit on your lap.

Create space for those moments in your life.

Instead of the in a seconds, today take a moment, pause, get on your knees (or tiptoe up) and look in their eyes and answer, yes, right now.

The moments are there.

Create space. Find joy.

What are ways you find space for those simple moments?

~Rachel
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