As a stay at home mom, I spend a lot of time with my kids, but sometimes when you spend all day every day with someone its easy to take that time for granted and be so busy with cleaning, calculating, organizing, and running a household that you don't spend a lot of quality time with them. I find that to be true for me. Recently, I've been noticing opportunities to pour into my children by spending real time with them. If I'm REALLY honest with you, I would have to admit that a lot of times it does not sound very appealing at all to sit and play pretend or do the things that they would like to do. In fact, its often the last thing I want to do. I love accomplishing things like organizing and cleaning and I would much rather be doing that. So I'm thankful that the Holy Spirit has been ways and reminding me to do things with my kids--and those things have ended up not being painful at all, but have actually been extremely enjoyable. As I've been being obedient to those promptings I've ended up feeling great knowing that I am not just spending lots of time around my kids, but I am actually spending quality time with my kids. I love that!
Sometimes, giving them of my time comes when I see them playing in the living room after dinner and I decide to engage with them instead of flopping down in exhaustion because, "Hey! They're already occupied!" The other night it was as simple and spontaneous as grabbing a bag of pipe cleaners and making them each a crazy hat which then morphed into messing around with some balls outside, which then morphed into them getting creative with pipe cleaners on their own... All before dessert. I loved it! And they did too.
{Elliott received "antlers" and Caiden received "bug antennae"}
Other times, giving my time to them has consisted of something I like to do, like organizing! We organized Elliott's legos so we could rebuild some of his old models whose pieces had become jumbled together--so fun! Then we built a police van, a police car, and a helicopter. I loved it! And they did too!
The more time I spend doing things like that with those munchkins, the easier it becomes and the more I realize that I love hanging out with them and spending time with them. Just sitting quietly--not multi-tasking--just loving them.
That's what we've been up to (so I just wanted to share) learning to love each other more purposefully. That's what my life here is looking like right now. And I'm loving it.
Sometimes, giving them of my time comes when I see them playing in the living room after dinner and I decide to engage with them instead of flopping down in exhaustion because, "Hey! They're already occupied!" The other night it was as simple and spontaneous as grabbing a bag of pipe cleaners and making them each a crazy hat which then morphed into messing around with some balls outside, which then morphed into them getting creative with pipe cleaners on their own... All before dessert. I loved it! And they did too.
{Elliott received "antlers" and Caiden received "bug antennae"}
The more time I spend doing things like that with those munchkins, the easier it becomes and the more I realize that I love hanging out with them and spending time with them. Just sitting quietly--not multi-tasking--just loving them.
That's what we've been up to (so I just wanted to share) learning to love each other more purposefully. That's what my life here is looking like right now. And I'm loving it.
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