First post on the new computer--a laptop! I am enjoying the click of the keys while I sit on the sofa after everyone has gone to bed. I don't get on the computer and write/type very often these days, but when we brought the computer home Logan challenged me to a type-off. He is in a computer programming class and his instructor told the class that if any of the kids could type faster than he (the instructor), he will waive their final in the class. Logan is at 35 words per minute and his teacher 65. He showed me the test online, and let me just say: I've still got it. 85 words per minute and 98% accuracy. I wonder what I was typing during my college days as an English major, spitting out pages and pages of papers every single day!
Anyway, it's been an interesting week. Yesterday I read an article that asked the question, "When was a time when you really lived in the moment?" Just a few days before that a friend shared a story of a mother stating that her biggest regret was not savoring the times with her children and then she talked about a moment that she could now look back on in a photograph and wished she could remember more of the feelings she felt during the moment. The next day I saw a picture of three of my children when they were very young, sitting together on a slide. It's like someone was sending me a message or something! I have been thinking about it ever since. So much of our lives these days seem to be simply getting through the day and getting to bed so that we can start a new day tomorrow. While I can remember specific instances of savoring a moment, I don't even know if I can remember when I last really just lived and loved in the moment! The heightened awareness of the question has helped me to live in the little moments today and I wanted to jot them down.
I jumped on the trampoline with Ammon. When my 5-times a mom bladder told me I should get off and he asked me to keep jumping, I kept jumping. We did a trick-off, where one person did a trick and the other person copied. He won with a flip....this body just can't do that anymore. We also discovered that it was fun to jump-sit on our bottoms, then hop up and give each other high-fives.
I held Auggie as much as I could today, trying to memorize the way he felt in my arms, and took notice of the way his body is stretching and thinning out. We had fun kicking a balloon back and forth to each other, and I think he is finally understanding the concept of taking a bite of something he doesn't really want in order to get a bite of something he does want. I took him into the dressing room with me (I bought a dress today that I would have worn in the 90's!!), and he had so much fun looking into the full length mirror. He would walk over to the side, then stick his head in to see himself, then arms, then legs. This is really a fun stage!
I sat at the piano and helped Grant practice a new song. He was getting frustrated because it takes some practice to make your left fingers move at a different speed than your right fingers. I got a little frustrated, too, to be honest (which is why I don't even try to teach them anymore and am paying someone else to teach them). But we made an agreement: hotdogs for dinner if he played through it 5 more times. Easiest dinner ever, and he's got that song down!
Logan is in Expo, which is basically the gifted and talented program. He needed a newspaper article that demonstrated a leader who displays at least four of the leadership qualities that they have been going over in class. Just a little ironic as right now the news does not really reflect great qualities of leaders in our country! We bought the Sunday edition with the hopes of having a better chance of finding something, and by some miracle we were able to find an article about FDR and an interview with George W. Bush. We waited until everyone had gone to bed before we scoured the articles and highlighted excerpts that could fit into the list of qualities. Usually I am anxious for everyone to go to bed, but tonight I was able to really enjoy talking to him about this grown-up, deep topic of leadership and the ideas discussed in the articles.
Sadly, I didn't have as much interaction with Madison. I will have to make it a priority tomorrow. Tonight she rushed through her piano practice and ran outside to play with friends. I did let her have extra rice crispy treats (which Ammon and I made tonight). I did confront her and a friend after I caught them riding skateboards, while sitting down, down the driveway and into the road--with my van in the other side of the driveway blocking their journey. I have been trying to ask questions instead of lecturing (soooo hard!), so I asked her why I didn't want them doing that and she was able to explain to me that cars would not be able to see down so low and the skateboards were going out so quickly (our driveway is on a slope) that they would not have time to stop even if they did see them. It was was a good, short conversation--we'll see if it makes a difference.
I guess that is enough to write about today. My hope is that if I am more aware of the moments that I will live in them a little more, and more joyously. And if I write them down I might just remember them a little bit better, and maybe I will even have more of them. Fingers crossed!
