TODAY!

Every so often, I am reminded that THIS MOMENT is all we have.  We are blessed to get to choose our paths and I admit that lately..I have wasted a lot due to indecision.

It’s hard watching your kids get older.  It’s hard seeing they have a different desire than you.  It’s painful feeling them grow away from you.

Most days I try to figure out what I’m going to do.  I’m not a hard-core planner, so I leave time open to “what if” and I’m happy to change directions if someone calls or something happens, or if, God forbid, my child calls and needs me for unforseen reasons.

As a parent, we have to be ready to change directions at a moments notice.  It’s hard at first.  I remember being mom to newborn and I had plans for this or that…and then a diaper explosion occurred….  No ignoring that!  So, you deal with it and move on as quickly as possible.  I call that the early training of parenthood….

The longer I’m a parent, the more ‘explosions’ happen (so to speak) the quicker I am trained to respond.  It’s just what parents do.

Today, I decided I wanted to steal my kids for the day.  I wanted to steal them yesterday, but it wasn’t in the cards so I had to let go.  So I warned them last night that today was the day!  I asked them each to bring a friend… And though they asked…no friends were in the cards.  And that’s okay.  They were still content to jump in the car with their old mom and head to a fun, quick excursion for just a few hours.  The stress getting into the car (because their friends weren’t available) quickly melted away after a brief yelling between siblings.  Soon the music played, a little chatter happened and eventually, we got to our destination.

As I waited for a parking space (stressed at the amount of people who had the same idea as me), I wondered why this place, or this outing meant so much to me… It’s kind of stupid if you think about it…it’s a nursery with lots of plants…and a cool Halloween store that’s no bigger than a 3 car garage….

And the answer is… It just is!

My kids know my love for Halloween, they have seen me fashion some crazy costumes from Carol Burnett’s “Gone with the WINDOW” outfit, to Mary Poppins white dress and The evil queen (because evil is who I am….).  They get me.

And as we walked into the nursery and to the store…it happened…. we all slowed down…. We took in the decorations, the lay out, the masks, hats, candles, pictures… we imagined, we laughed, we tried on weird things… we just took it all in one item at a time.

At one point, the girls came across Newtons Cradle… which demonstrates the law of Inertia (yes I am looking this up, because I’m not that smart).   It’s basically a dangly thing with 5 balls hanging from wires, and if you pull one ball back it slams into the collection and only one ball on the other side will bounce back.  If you pull two then you get two, etc….  It’s a captivating little demonstration that the girls were both taken with, and they worked it for quite a while.

I loved just watching their intrigue at the science of it all, while not understanding for a second how it all happens…  They were both totally engaged….

THISSSS…is why I am here…

We have life, we have phones we have our heads up our phones….we have drama, we have stress, we have… wasted moments…. Some of it we can control, but some of it gets away from us.

Every so often we have to take life back and make the moments happen.

As my kids are getting older, these moments are less and less.  So when I can coral them for just an hour or so, I will do my best to make it happen…

On our way home, we took the long way home… We drove PCH.  If you know me then you know PCH (Pacific Coast Highway for those outside California) is LIFE!!!   Traffic or no, PCH scales the ocean…aka my heart.  It’s a wonder I haven’t died from staring at the ocean as I drive. I am perfectly mesmerized no matter how many times I drive it.  The girls had no issue because they know the long way home is always the best!

After we got home, we had Sunday dinner (the only real day we eat together) and our usual nana (my mom) and Julie (bestie) were there to enjoy.  And as a bonus we had Aunt Abi with baby Finn and a bonus bonus of Grandma Lonell (who couldn’t get there fast enough to see her Finn).

As we sat in the back yard, under the bistro lights eating a most fabulous dinner that hubs created… and chatting away, I had another amazing night with my family… We are never at loss for good conversation!

I am constantly reminded that we only have today!  Life can get away from us with all the muck and the myer and B.S. of every day life… but don’t forget to realize….we only have today!  You can make today full of worry and sadness….or you can make a concerted effort to make a few great moments among the life that happens in between.

Control what you can and let go the rest.  Life is short, and none of us get out alive (I have stated this before)…  But remember to appreciate the best in all you have!  Take a moment…even you are so busy you can’t see straight.. appreciate it and remember today is all we have!

Make it a good one!