Time is slipping away...

I've been reading a new blog recently called the AfterBelly.  She posted recently about how important it is to enjoy your kids.  Sounds obvious, doesn't it?  But when I get into the routine of day-to-day life of taking them to and from school, doing laundry, making dinner, cleaning, and breaking up fights between my kids coupled with a few bad days of major tantrums and lots of defiance, it's easy to forget to do that - enjoy them!  The way my friend phased  it was that "today is a page of my kids' childhood... written moment by moment... whether by laughter or tears."   And these days are slipping away so fast!  I'm not sure why, but it just hit me like a ton of bricks! 

Don't get me wrong, I play with my kids.  I laugh and have fun with my kids, but I want to re-awaken my senses to breathe them in. To remember to take note of their innocence and wonder of the world while they're only 6, 4, and 1!  Oh, it's going so fast!

So, today I made the decision to be more intentional with my time with them today.  

And then I decided to buy a calendar for each of the kids' rooms to notate our special time each day, whether it's special time that we get in their Bibles, or how we had a chance to serve someone that day, or a surprise trip to the dollar store (kind of silly, but they love picking something out at the dollar store!), or a movie we watched together... anything!

It's a motivator for me to make more purposeful, sweet time for my kids so they have something to write on their calendar!  And, of course, it's fun for them to cross off the days and think of something to write on their special calendars for that day.  It's a win-win for all! 

So today, the kids wrote "swimming and pizza for dinner."  Both were last minute decisions.  I usually would have avoided taking them swimming without Jon (because three kids who don't know how to swim is a lot of work!).   But I'm glad I took the chance.  We all had SO much fun!