Wednesday 30 January 2013

Slowing Down




     Slowing down. That's what we've been doing around here lately.



     I don't like to sit still for too long. I don't like to rest much. I like to be productive. I like to fill our days with fun activities, visits with friends, play dates, events, trips to the park, walks, errands (well, not really..but they're always unfortunately necessary) and play time.

     I've learned through some pretty unfortunate life experiences that life is fragile. Life isn't guaranteed to us. So in the back of my mind, each morning I wake up and think "What if this is my last day on Earth, my last day with my kids and Terry...what should we do today?". I never want to waste a day. Ever.

     So I live for experiences. I live for connections with people. I live for the little moments that make me laugh. Make me smile. Make me feel like I'm LIVING. Simply going through the motions each day is my nightmare and what I try to avoid with every ounce of my being. So I purposely try to create experiences each day for myself and my family, and I seek out people who make me happy, while avoiding those who make me feel anxious, uncomfortable or unhappy.




     "Surround yourself with successful people and you will become successful" my dad always says. Success though, does not merely mean financial success. It means surrounding myself with people who I strive to be like. Who are good. Who I want my kids to be like one day. So I seek out experiences that I know will make for some good memories, and I seek out people who I look up to and who make me happy.


 
     In creating these experiences, we've made some great memories outside of our home and had a lot of fun doing it. However, I've switched gears over these past couple of weeks. We've stayed home a lot and found a type of rich life inside our home instead.

Terry said to me the other morning,

"So, what are you guys going to do today?".

I looked at him, shrugged my shoulders, and replied "I don't know. We'll see where the day takes us. I have no plans".

He laughed. "Really?"

I'm sure that he did a double-take to make sure that he was actually still talking to his wife.

"Yup".

     So regardless of the fact that our laundry room filled up with sewage this week (later discovering that it was roots growing through the pipes from our massive tree on our front lawn), and our boy has a terrible cold (which means that we've been up ALL night long with him every day this week)...they end up just being minor details in the great scheme of things. It's still been a great week.

We've been baking a lot, on a whim, because we've had all the time in the world with no agenda.






Sugar cookie bars, packed with more tasty treats than the recipe called for of course, didn't last long.

 Painting with chocolate pudding has now become one of her favourite things to do...





I also learned this week that a can of $1 shaving cream from the dollar store and a bathtub can create endless amounts of fun and will keep an active 2yr old busy for a VERY long time.





Carter happily watched from outside of the bathtub...

...(next year buddy, next year).



Bathing her babies in the kitchen sink has now become a regular morning routine...

(I swear she does wear clothes...sometimes).

And this is what I found after leaving the room to put her brother down for a nap. All of her clothes off, her diaper pulled at and her bed pulled apart as she tried to snuggle under the covers with her bear.

She was SO happy about it. This kid cracks me up.
     
And to top it off, our little Carter just got baptized...

...along with our little friend Abby, just a couple of months older than him.

Here's to a great rest of the week.  Enjoy every minute!

p.s. If anyone else has any other fun activities to do with little ones at home, please pass them along to me! I'm always looking for new ideas.



 

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