Perspective

  I came across this quote today on a friend's blog and it could not have been better timing or more well-said:

 

"Be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled, will disappear all too soon... and that you will, to your surprise, miss them, profoundly."

 

- President Thomas S. Monson 

 

Life the last few months has been insanely busy....I have been truckin' along in graduate school while also working part-time (graveyards no less) and also trying to be a good wife and mom to my swiftly growing kids.  I have been trying so hard to make sure and spend the time I'm not working/schooling with the kids and making sure that I am a good mom, that my house work has gone downhill pretty fast.  I feel like I am always just barely keeping up and things have definitely gotten behind.  Usually the laundry gets so piled up that I can barely get the last load(s) folded and put away by the time we run out of clothes again.  Or the clean clothes just sit in baskets until they run out and I need to do laundry again.  Most of the time the house is so messy that I would not allow even my closest friends and family (that probably wouldn't judge me because they love me unconditionally) see my house.  Then I try and spend nap time cleaning up but it never quite looks as good as it could.

 

HOWEVER, in a situation like this when there are just not enough hours in a day and something has to give, I have realized that if anything needs to give, it should be the things that are really not THAT important in the grand scheme of things.  As much as I would love to have a clean house and laundry perfectly folded and put away all the time, its not as important as spending time with my family and being there for my kids.  I have been working lately on making sure that I am "present" with my kids, not just there physically but there with them mentally as well.  There are days when one of the kids will do or say something so stinking adorable that I just have to stop and look at them for a minute to just bask in it before the moment is gone.  I feel sometimes like it is the first time I have really "seen" them all day.  Of course there are those days when I just have to go through the motions and survive for that day, but those days for the most part are rare.

 

I decided to make a list of all the little things I am going to miss one day, so that I can remember to enjoy them right now in the moment.

 

One day I will miss:

 

*Malea wanting me to snuggle with her when she goes to bed (even though at the end of the day I am just so done and want to snuggle up in my own bed with a good book)

*Not being able to go to the bathroom without an audience

*Always having a child as my shadow

*Malea coming in our room half asleep in the middle of the night to snuggle, 

and having to put her back in her bed

*Folding endless loads of little socks, onesies, rompers, Disney princess night gowns, and skirts w/ leggings (all that Malea will wear these days)

*Isaac standing up in his crib waiting for me to come get him out when he wakes up

*Malea beaming when I go to pick her up from pre-school, and how excited she is to show me the cute little craft she made that day

*My kids thinking I am just the coolest person ever

*Isaac's wild and crazy curls

*Playing "Cars" cars or Thomas the train with Isaac

*Hearing Malea say "Mommy, will you do a craft with me?"

*Isaac's mischievous little smile behind his binky as I am chasing him anywhere and everywhere

*Even the frustrating things like the tantrums/fighting/throwing food/nighttime waking (but I'm thinking I will probably miss those things a lot less :))

 

I'm sure there are endless more that I will miss.  I just hope that on those days when I am feeling overwhelmed and stressed and my kids are driving me nuts that I can remember these things, and say "Yes" to the kids when they ask me to play with them outside instead of cleaning or doing the other million things I could be doing. 

 

 

Thanks President Monsen for a great reminder :)