My life's pretty busy, and I'll be the first to admit that quite often it's because I take on more than I should. My Grandpa nicknamed me "hummingbird" because I never stop moving, and it's true - I don't. Or not very often anyways, but I am working on it.
I had a little "hey shut up and pay attention" moment yesterday when my 11 year old came home from a sleepover. He spends half his time with me, and half with his dad (we've been separated for 6 years) and so when things get busy we don't often get to spend 1-on-1 time together. It just so happened that his baby brother was to go to Nana's for a play date with their little cousins, and I was heading to the grocery store.
I was a little bit taken aback when he sounded so excited to come with me, and didn't want to just stay home to catch up on COD playtime. I was even a teeny bit suspicious, wondering what his 11 year old angle might be, but when he said "I just wanna hang out with you" I quickly put that thought away and just went with it. (bad Mommy)
So we dropped the short "noise covered with dirt" off at Nana's and proceeded to the grocery store. He Heeley'd the cart around as I shopped, and I only had to yell at him once for ripping past the meat section doing about 45 km/h. When we got home he helped me unload the groceries, went and finished up his chores while I got dinner started, and as soon as the chili was ready to sit and simmer for a while, he had the popcorn maker out and we proceeded to make a double batch of hot air popcorn.
He loves my popcorn because I put about a half a cup of melted butter on it. "I love that you love butter Mom ..." (my son is very affectionate and vocal, I got about 8 "I love you's" and at least 4 "you're the best mom EVER's " out of him that day)
Best part of the whole day? We plop down on the couch to chill out before I go pick up his little brother, and he asks if we can watch Golden Girls. "Man I love that show, those ladies are so funny." Seriously! So we found 2 back-to-back episodes on DejaView and ate a giant butter coated bowl of popcorn and laughed for an hour until I had to go. He thanked me ... THANKED me for hanging out. Ouch.
It was a perfect and awesome way to end a busy afternoon, and it just reminded me that sometimes I just need to stop and chill and just BE with my kids. It's OK if the laundry sits in the machine for an hour or two, or if the vacuuming doesn't get done right away. Some things are more important ... WAY more important.
Besides, even hummingbirds must rest sometimes .... right?
Happy Sunday.
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