Stealing Moments

Life is busy. Life is crazy. Life is crazy busy.

Recently I've found myself longing for the world to stop spinning, just for a day. Heck, I'd even settle for a calm hour. If I'm honest I will admit I've been waiting for that to occur for as long as I can remember.

"When life calms down I'll....."
"When I have a free night/weekend/day I'll....."
"Next week I will..."

Turns out life never calms down and the days I long for don't show up. Instead the days pass by with me unable to truly control it. My "baby" boy is now five. My "newborn" daughter is approaching a year an a half. I feel like I've allowed so many moments to pass me by simply because I'm waiting for the perfect moment. That perfect moment rarely occurs.

In the attempt to simply accept my crazy life I've spent the week looking to create almost perfect moments. I so often want to hang out with my son and just have fun. It's tough when two nights a week there's soccer practice and work commitments have kept me there beyond my usual exit time. Tonight, with dear daughter sleeping, my son happily playing his Nintendo DS and DH grabbing a cat nap on the couch I started clean up the kitchen. I threw out a desperate "Hey, LJ, want to help me with the dishwasher?" "No thank you, Mom." At least he's polite. I began to clear the dishwasher of the load of clean dishes when little man came in. "I can help you before the start of the next race." Bingo. Moment created.

We weren't at Disneyland or at the beach but the ten minutes we spent unloading and reloading the dishwasher was great. We spoke of the day's events and looked ahead to this weekend's USC game. I allowed him to figure out where to place each plate and bowl, he accepted that challenge and did a darn good job.

The moment wasn't perfect but it was ours. My life feels a bit more balanced because I stole a moment.