We had a really busy week.
Well, really, we seem to have a busy life.
Here's our morning schedule:
6:00 - I wake up, get dressed, freshen up
6:30 - Kids start to wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast. I try to study my scriptures.
7:15 - Practice violin with Jens (this takes 100% of my focus)
7:45 - Practice piano with Nels (while I also try to do the girls' hair, etc)
8:20 - I keep a running dialogue going.
"Did you brush your hair? Use the bathroom? Brush your teeth! Get your socks on! Get your
shoes on! Why haven't you brushed your teeth yet? What do you mean you can't find clean socks? Do you want a school lunch or a packed lunch? What do you want for your snack? Where's your backpack?"
8:45ish - I drop Nels off at school
9:00 - I pry Hanna off of me at the YMCA (she hates the babysitters there) and try to get a workout in
In between getting home from the Y and dropping Jens off at afternoon Kindergarten, I barely have time to shower, make lunch, and get us out the door for the second time.
And the day goes on.
I can see that the structure is really good for us, in many ways. But, I miss summer. I miss being able to pause and watch my kids play, and I miss talking to them. I miss waking up and thinking, "What are we going to do today?!" The answer was almost always adventure! I miss knowing what they're up to 100% of the time, and who they're playing with, and how it's going. This is especially true with Nels, who is in full-time school for the first time this year. He comes home cranky, and sassy, and tired. And he almost never wants to talk about much.
So, yes. We're doing many good things. We have healthy family dinners, which was hard for me to orchestrate on carefree, hot summer days. We're doing family chores (and family movie nights as the reward!), which is good for their development, too. We read, we work on homework, we practice musical instruments. We listen to their music CDs (required by their teachers) every. single. day. We are back in the routine of making beds and brushing teeth, and we turn on the TV much, much less. I make sure they play outside for a few hours after school, even if the weather isn't perfect, so they get a break; but during those hours, I am cleaning the house. And making dinner. And just generally busy, busy, busy.
And then.
On Friday night, when all of the other kids had gone to bed, Nels was out of his room, whining. He was hungry, and lonely, and he couldn't sleep.
Nevermind that we had pizza for dinner, followed by a gluttonous family movie night. Nevermind that he needed to be up for swimming lessons first thing the following morning. Nevermind that my mom instincts would normally have said, "Get that boy back in bed! If you let it go now, he'll walk all over you tomorrow night, too!" I had a feeling that this was a golden moment, and so I seized it. I whispered in his ear that he needed to get his shoes on, because I was taking him to McDonalds. And not to tell Dad, because it was our little secret. (I told Carl where I was going, of course, but it was really fun for Nels to have a "secret date".)
He didn't actually eat very much of his meal; just as I usually suspect, "hunger" was an excuse to get out of bed. (And no, I normally don't fall for that trick). But tonight?
Tonight it was just me and him. He told me all about school, about the tests they take on their computers, how he and his friend take turns reading books together, and about his favorite kids in class. He told me about his favorite Pokemon, and we played with his new Hexbug. I fell in love with this cute little freckle-faced redhead all over again, and I told him all of the things I loved about him, writing one thing on each finger of his left hand. He loved it so much that he asked me what else I loved him for, and if I could please fill up the fingers on his other hand, too.
Being busy is good. I am doing good things, and I have a lot to accomplish on any given day; the work I do cleaning, organizing, and teaching my kids healthy habits is important. But I hope I never let it get in the way of the truly important things; I hope my kids always know exactly how much I love them, and that I would go to the ends of the earth for them.
I hope I never get so caught up in doing the "right" thing that I forget to do the important thing.
XOXO,
Courtney
