Enjoy the Moment….It all goes by so quickly…..You’re going to miss this……
File those under “things that just might make you come unhinged?” amIrite?
The truth is, that we really do know that it is passing by way too quickly than we wish it was. Who wouldn't give for one more newborn snuggle? What about those fleeting new moments of getting to know a brand-new person? Before you know it, those little tiny feet that barely could fit into a pair of newborn socks have outgrown YOUR shoes and that little person is taller than you….. we KNOW this. We know this truth in our very core, whether we want to actually acknowledge it or not.
Somedays can’t seem to go by quickly enough and other moments just linger and stay beyond their welcome, don’t they? Goodness, there are things about being a child that we even miss ourselves- you know, the whole not having to get up and go to work everyday, not having to plan, cook, and clean up three meals a day (and then there are those Hobbit snacks……..)
Add in a healthy dose of mom Guilt, and boy is this a recipe for disaster, isn’t it? And there just seems to be so much that we need to feel guilty about these days, and if we aren’t heaping on the guilt ourselves, just give it a minute, and we’ll find it somehwere- in a commercial, a well-meaning family member, an innocent bystander in a store…..maybe even your best friend? At some point, typically when you are already feeling at your worst, you’ll get this huge red flag sign about how you aren’t doing enough, you aren’t doing the right things, and you might feel like an utter, absolute failure……
I wish that I had a magic wand, or some incredible words of wisdom for you that make it all better. But, what I do have is a reminder that MAGIC can happen in those moments. That those moments can be the BEST moments in our lives- if we let them.
This is my 9th year of homeschooling my children, and you would think that I’d have it figured out by now…..but goodness, if it hasn’t been a whole new level of crazy adding a new Kindergartner to the mix! Somehow, it was far less stressful when he was just a preschooler and I could set him on the floor with some blocks and crayons, and I didn’t have to make sure he was learning something, or in truth, when I didn’t have that extra set of check boxes to mark off for him.
This particular little boy is super crazy smart, overly energetic and TROUBLE! He has so so so much energy, and is just blessed with an extra dose of curiosity, and somehow he hasn’t managed to master that important lesson that he isn’t invincible and that not ALL ideas should be followed through……
This little boy is adamantly against learning his ABCs. Latin? He can speak to you in Latin, has all of his older siblings Latin vocabulary memorized and does a better job remembering it than I do sometimes (and I took two years of Latin in high school!). He can answer questions on a philosophical level that even his older siblings (the ones that go to Public School) have yet to master- he can sort out things, reason them out, and formulate ideas, questions and thoughts all his own. He has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge for things- well, things OTHER than the ABCs…..(unless it is C for cat or T for Tasmanian devils, he has no use for the rest of the letters he says!) He has spent the last 2 years at my feet, soaking in and listening to all our school lessons and then blowing me away be telling my husband about them at the dinner table. He even corrected information that my daughter learned at school that was incorrect concerning American History. But back to those ABCs…..I guess he finds them unnecessary? Who knows…..
It has been just dreary hear- like pouring buckets and buckets of rain. Puddles, cold, wet…..and so we have been stuck inside. Meaning- I have one very wound up, needing to get his energy out boy, who is just done with having to learn those pesky letter things by his 6th day of Kindergarten.
In the past, I would have kept bringing him back to the table, kept beating my head against the wall…..most likely lost my cool, and wound up in hiding in the garage, calling my husband in tears. (oh wait, that was just last week, lol!). Instead, I decided to be in the moment. Right now this particular little boy is enthralled with learning about Tasmanian devils, wanting to practice his Latin, and then just to read book after book after book. And so I did. We read and we read and we read. We turned on some music, and danced those wiggles out. We read some more books and then we had lunch.
My check boxes aren’t checked, but you know what? I’m ok with that. Some days you just need grace. You just need to remember that these days ARE fleeting, that these moments pass by and you can’t have them again. Some days you just need to be in the moment, reading all the books, and letting go of the to do’s. And you know what? That’s ok. And there were no tears, no stress, no yelling matches, and it’s all good.
We still learned. We read about Vivaldi. We read funny animals books. We helped the Little Pigs count to 100. We had some really in depth discussions- with the older 2 kiddos- about Adam, Eve, Sin and the magnitude of Noah’s Obedience. I’m still reveling in the truths from these verses that my children helped me to see. Even a child shall lead them……(because as our verse this week reminds us, ALL Scripture is God-Breathed!) . Lessons for a lifetime, lessons that have an impact on eternity- lessons beyond a page in a book, or checking off that next item…..
Some seasons are about just learning to be. And at the end of the day? I’m sure that he will eventually learn those letters- just in his own time, and hopefully without tears. I’d rather him learn to LOVE learning, to want to learn, and to be hungry for knowledge than to make it a boring chore that he comes to resent. And you know what else? When I use the same concept with the older 2, when their eyes are getting glazed over a History lesson, or when they just aren’t mastering the spelling list, it makes that work out much better as well. Grace. We all need a healthy dose of GRACE in our lives. When you are just rushing to mark off all the items on your To Do List, how much does it fill you with joy? Are you able to stop and enjoy the moments, or does it just become busy work? Take the time to find, and enjoy the moments, just BE in the moments and let that change you.