The Work is Never Done, So Just Enjoy Your Family

Do you ever feel like you're 5 hours behind in perpetuity? I do. Today was no different. We can adjust the time unit in that statement to be days, weeks, months, or years, and it still makes sense in some cases.

It's been a very full day, starting with the trip to the orthodontist this morning with one child. I usually take some sort of work. Today, I sat for the entire hour in the waiting room reading the current Real Simple magazine and drinking a tasty, hot coffee. For once, I didn't try to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of every second. Blessed relaxation.

We returned back to school just as lunch was starting for Kara's class, so I stayed with her, chatted with her friends and another mom who had come to see her daughter. Then it was a half-hour wait until Kal's class ate lunch. More chatting with him, his friends, and his classmates. I love that my children still enjoy having Kris and me come for lunch when we can. I also like knowing who is in their classes. In the course of the day, I ended up at two banks and the license branch. They aren't the House of Trolls they used to be. The experience was friendly, personable, and didn't take nearly as long as I had played out in my head that it would.

School pick-ups, the gas station, return lots of phone calls, answer lots of texts, see people I know because it's a small town. That's one thing I love about our town. If you like people, and I generally do, you will run into a dozen people you know every time you walk out your front door in a town this size. It's a happy thing for an extrovert like me.

Kris took Kal out for a bit this evening to have time with him. They had man-sized meals in Kokomo. Kara and I hung out watching The Parent Trap (the good one with Haley Mills) and making a meal of popcorn and hot chocolate. Not apologizing at all for that one.

Family reading time finished the day nicely. Minimal scrapping amongst our children. We all love that time together.

To conclude, my to-do list is still sitting there with some rather urgent projects, but what I finished was necessary too. The time and energy being involved with my family was irreplaceable. To-do lists have a shallow value compared to time with loved ones.

Yes, I feel 5 hours behind. The work is never done--home or business. Today, I tossed out my normal to-do list and just soaked up time with the people who mean the most to me.