Today was an exceptionally busy day. Last night, I started preparing for it by making banana and cinnamon muffins for breakfast, soaking the Quinoa for our chicken stew for dinner, and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our lunch since I knew we would be eating on the run. I packed the swim bag, started laundry, did the dishes, etc. ... all in hopes of making the day go smoother for us.
8:00 a.m.: All went well this morning. Noah slept in, Daddy dressed Gray, everyone had muffins for breakfast -- so now we were off to swim lessons at 9:30. Today was Gray's 1st ISR (Infant Swim Rescue) lesson and Noah's refresher course. We headed across Dallas (30 minute drive) and the boys did great! The instructor had an outdoor pool, which the boys were delighted to swim in. That is, until Gray actually had to get in -- at which he started to scream.
10:15 a.m.: We left swim lessons and headed to the Galleria Mall (it was close by) for some school-clothes shopping. Sigh. This is never fun for the boys, or me, for that matter. Nothing fits, especially if it's on sale, and soon, I had whiny kids. I pulled out the well prepared lunch box of PBandJ, juice boxes and other items and the kids calmed for just a few more stores.
12:30 p.m.: During the drive home, Gray fell asleep. I tried to transfer him to his crib, but he woke up. Luckily, he went to his crib for quiet time anyway. Yeah! Noah went to a friends house to play. I checked on dinner, did more laundry and dishes.
2:15 p.m. Gray called for me ... "Mommy, I poop!" So off I went to clean a dirty booty.
2:30 p.m.: The sitter arrived to watch Gray while I took Noah to his basketball camp. This is a great camp because it is skill-based, dribbling forwards, backwards, sideways, different hands. It lasted 2 hours, so after staying awhile, I headed to the grocery store and to get gas for the car.
5:00 p.m.: I picked up Noah, dropped off the sitter, put away the groceries, dished up dinner, fed the kids, dressed Noah for bed.
6:45 p.m.: Anthony made it home, had dinner and took Gray off to bed. I read a few great books with Noah and tucked him in. I say "stay in your bed tonight. No coming out. Mommy is too tired." You see, Noah has had trouble sleeping lately - busy mind, lots of questions. Lately at night, he has been coming out and ends up snuggling with us on the couch while we watch T.V. Tonight, I was in desperate need of down-time, so I made it clear - no coming out.
9:00 p.m.: Missed Opportunity? I finally start to relax in the bathtub and pick up a new book I am reading, "How To Prepare Him For The Other Woman." I realize while I am reading this book that I am missing an opportunity to show love, patience and understanding to my 6-year-old who needed help getting to sleep. I said a quick prayer that Noah might still be awake and jumped out of the tub. Luckily, he was still awake. We talked about why he was having trouble, that I have trouble sometimes too and then we told each other "what if" stories. "What if we were hiking and mommy got hurt, what would you do?" He loved getting to play the hero in that what-if scenario. He knew to call 911 with my cell phone, to find shelter or build it and wanted to go hunting to get me a snake for dinner (ewww). Soon, he was relaxed and thinking thoughts other than just falling asleep. I rubbed his head, we said a prayer with Daddy and he drifted off to sleep.
Thank God I did not miss that opportunity to be with him when he needed me. To show a different kind of love that met his heart's need and not just his physical, everyday needs.
My prayer is that I am able to have these opportunities to be still with him. To not be so busy with the needs of the day that I miss the needs of his heart. Someday, these opportunities will help him to be still with his wife and children and to meet the needs of their hearts.
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