“Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach. T. Berry Brazelton. Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with ‘Goodnight Moon’ and ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.” Then she goes on and talks about some of the mistakes she made while raising her babies. “…the biggest mistake I made 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 the three of [my children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. 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.”
--Anna Quindlen
I'm not good at this. I relish the checking off of my to do list. I love the getting done way way to much. (Not that I really get that much done in a day!) I look at pictures of times gone by and that is when I stop and sigh and think...I should have breathed in that moment longer. Made sure I was really present with my kids. I know it's hard sometimes. My kids can talk non stop and want every bit of my thoughts and energy. I just have to remember that they actually want to talk to me. I"m sure a time will come all too soon when I will be begging them to communicate with me. I need to get about treasuring the doing more!
Oh...and PS... I apologize for the lack of pictures. While my internet connections seems to be working better then before, it absolutely takes forever to upload even one picture. I'm gonna get some on here soon...some of the house..some of the kids...soon!!
