Slowing Down

Today was a GOOD day.

And it wasn't because we had special plans. We didn't. And we didn't meet up with any friends and family. The weather wasn't even very good for the majority of the day (though it cleared up enough to play outside before dinnertime ... thank you sunshine!).

Today was just one of those good days. We actually stayed home all day, something that's a rarity for us. Usually the kids wake up each morning asking where we are going to go that day. But today everyone had a lingering cold and I decided that we would just all hunker down and see if we could entertain ourselves at home.

By lunchtime we had completed our floor alphabet puzzle, hunted for treasure, had a dance party (to the same song over and over and over), played "school", played "babies", made goldfish and Cheez-It sandwiches for snack, built a city on the train table, and designed a custom built fort complete with inside lighting and a secret passageway. There were a few disagreements thrown in here and there (those aren't ever absent, even on a good day), but nothing that wasn't resolved within a minute or two. Then we got to have lunch with Daddy and EVERYONE took a nap! The girls are dabbling in no nap territory these days, so it's like Christmas when the stars align and everyone takes a two hour siesta. After nap we played outside, had dinner, played some more and then had our normal bath, books, and bed routine.

Isn't it amazing how the most ordinary of days are the ones you tend to enjoy the most? Dance parties and fort building will only last for a short time, so I'm so thankful for the days that I give in and completely enjoy these things with the kids myself. So many days I am too busy or hurried to really participate in many of their games. It takes a day like this to remind me to enjoy this short, sweet time I have with them and to be a participant in their growth and happiness, not just a spectator. I want them to remember me as part of the action, not as a mom who supervised and observed.

So today I'm thankful for diving in, for giving in to childishness, and for acting a little less like "mom" than I do on a normal day. If it can get me four of these ...

... I'm going to have to make it a more regular occurrence.