A Really Good, Really Full Day

Around 4 o'clock today, I had the wonderful realization that I was having a really good day. A good mom day, a good me day and even a good kitchen-construction-getting-done day. But, I was most happy about the mom day.

Of course, when your day starts out with these two looking so hip and happy, what other type of day could I have had?






What really made the day for me was that I felt like I had been present for my girls. And, it has been a long time since I have felt truly present, without thoughts of which merchants I had to track down or contractors to contact about kitchen stuff not getting done. (Day 72 and counting, but today was a day when we saw tremendous activity and progress!) We played with Legos and Play Doh and in the sand box. I even snuck in some education with Zelda, working on patterns and colors and numbers with those Legos.

I couldn't help but remember something I wanted to carry with me this year: do less, be more. I've worked at it, and even been successful at it in the past nine months. But, during the past two months, those efforts have been scarce. So, woo hoo for me!

I even labeled my dill pickles - the first things I canned last week after the cooktop went in - and put them 'up.' I just love doing that!


As I kept patting myself on the back through the late afternoon and evening, the good mom day almost went south as our evening wound down and I was reading with the girls. Here we were reading Little House in the Big Woods with Laura and the family making cheese when Annalee starts asking me about my watch and electricity and the microwave. Hello? Are you even listening to me read? When I called her on it, she refocused enough for me to get to the end of the chapter, at which time I called it quits for the night. Then, Annalee remembered she needed to read a book to me for school. I found myself happily going into Annalee's room, snuggled up with her and let her read to me. Wow, I was so present, still.

And, it was so worth my energy. 'Cause Annalee and I shared a belly laugh when she came up with a new word: pork-cup-pin-ease. Don't you think that's so much more fun to say than porcupine?