making the moments count

It was going to be our last weekend together for a month.

How would I make it count? How would I slow down enough to savor it when there were bills to be paid, banking to be done, paperwork to wade through, suitcases to be packed, and a million things to be checked off The List?

But we did. Make it count, that is.

a day off on magnetic island.

We are still reclaiming Sundays.

Last weekend, our Sunday was on Friday.

Knowing that my boys would soon be separated for far too long, I relished the moments they played together in the sand, sat together in the shade of our beach tent, walked along the shoreline, swam in the shallow, and whispered nonsense under their breath.

I sat in amazement watching my littlest drink milk from a box - such a small thing and yet such a marker of toddlerhood.

{Sippy no longer required.}

pretty impressed with himself... and life in general.

I watched as my husband teased him and tickled him, trying to distract him from one of his favorite times of the day - snack time.

Little moments, regular moments... precious moments.

i can't get enough of watching these two together.

It's good to have good-byes every now and then. They help bring your priorities into alignment and gently pressure you to make your moments count.

Our "Sunday" gave way to Saturday - a bustling day filled with an early Easter egg hunt and a backyard full of friends, lots of to-do's and packing completed, and then a nice night out with my beloved before I (temporarily) lost him to an airplane headed to another nation.

first father-son easter egg hunt. presh.

I'm grateful for the time we have. It never feels like enough... but it is. It's enough. What we're given is always enough... as long as we make it count.

the closest thing we're going to get to a family easter picture this year... and as you can tell,
levi is a far cry from being a poser. camera on = instantly disinterested... but still as gorgeous as always.

Dear friends, how have you made your precious time count this week?


making the moments count,

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you pregnant? Link up with the Bloggin' Babes and Babies of 2011.

Share your creativity and Easter inspiration by submitting your Easter card to our Easter card linky (closing April 21).

This post is part of my Reclaiming Sundays project - an intentional effort to carve out family time every week to rest, refresh, breathe, laugh, relax, enjoy... Please feel free to join me if you'd like.

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

reclaiming sundays... carefree and clothes free

Sometimes life feels like a runaway train and it takes everything from within to make a stand for slowing things down.

Raising kids is like that.

Regardless of jobs and deadlines and finances and responsibilities, just being a parent seems to propel life into fast forward. With each new milestone, developmental leap, and growth spurt the passing of time is amplified.

And so is the challenge of slowing things down, which is why I'm thrilled to say that our last few Sundays have looked a lot like this:

Sun, grass, a cheap wading pool, a garden hose, tall glasses of ice water, thrown together plates of cheese and cracker snacks, sticky, juicy orange slices, lounge chairs, sunscreen, floppy hats, a well-loved swing set, and sweet, mellow playlists providing the perfect soundtrack to the unfolding joy.

They have been lazy; they have been perfect.

No one straining to finish a project. No one sweating to cross things off the list. No one stressing to get one last errand in before the shops close.

Just resting, refreshing, relishing, enjoying.

But one of the best things about this time--these days--of our lives is this:

Little boys with bare naked bums.

I know if I'm not careful I'll blink and Levi will be too grown-up to run around the backyard naked without a care in the world.

So for now, we're savoring these days. Carefree and clothes free.

Life is good.

Dear friends, what are you savoring these days?


love,

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you pregnant? Link up with the Bloggin' Babes and Babies of 2011.

Share your creativity and Easter inspiration by submitting your Easter card to our Easter card linky (closing April 21).

This post is part of my Reclaiming Sundays project - an intentional effort to carve out family time every week to rest, refresh, breathe, laugh, relax, enjoy... Please feel free to join me if you'd like.

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

reclaiming sundays... with beans and a side of enchilada

Our last couple of Sundays have been rainy. Not just the skies-are-gray-things-are-a-bit-wet type of rainy... but more of an I-just-might-drown-trying-to-get-from-my-house-to-my-car type of rainy.

Relentless pounding tropical downpour.

Although Oregon is thought of as a state that is constantly wet, I'm from a very dry area in central Oregon, where we typically get 6-12 inches of rain per year. I don't even remember owning a raincoat or umbrella for most of my life.

And then I moved to the tropics.

Here during the wet season we can easily get my hometown's entire annual rainfall in a single afternoon. {I am soooo not exaggerating.}

Sunday was one of those days.

But, regardless of the elements being pitted against us, we had already decided that we were going out to celebrate Ryan's birthday at a local wanna-be-Mexican restaurant (the closest the Aussies can get to Mexican at least), and so we scooped up our little and headed in search of ribs (for Ryan) and a burrito (for me).

Much to my dismay the restaurant had quit serving burritos. Yes, you read that right - a Mexican restaurant with no burritos. (Remember friends, we are talking Australian-Mexican food here.)

So instead I got the enchiladas.

To my shock and horror I was delivered a giant plate with ONE enchilada surrounded by two massive side dishes - beans on one side and lettuce on the other. My measly lone enchilada was nearly lost in that sea of lettuce and beans.

Now before you feel too sorry for me let me remind you that this occasion was not about me. (Keep in mind how hard it is for a pregnant woman to acknowledge this when it comes to anything food-related!)

Thankfully my enchilada (singular) was tasty... but far more importantly, Ryan's huge order of ribs was absolutely delish. Levi munched on bits of our meals and was happy bopping along in his highchair to the cheesy Video Hits that played in the background. But the best part of the meal was the end - just watching my boy love his daddy and my man love his son.

They are such a great pair.

Soaking wet and still hungry or not... there's no better way to spend a Sunday than with the ones I love most.

Dear friends, have you had some good family time this week? I dare you to be deliberate about making it happen.

estoy alegre,

Note: You can read my original post with more of what this is all about here. If you'd like to grab the Reclaiming Sundays button and join in with our family's quest to make some more time for rest in our busy lives, then please feel free. (And remember, your "Sundays" don't have to literally be on Sundays... any old day will do, as long as it's deliberate.) Make sure to leave me your link so I can visit!

<a href="http://www.themommyhoodmemos.com" target="_blank"><img alt="The Mommyhood Memos" src="http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m223/adrielmc/reclaimingsundaysbuttonimagesize200.jpg" /></a>
(And don't worry, the button will display on your blog as a normal button size!)

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011 

do not reproduce without written permission

reclaiming sundays... with sunnies

So, my husband has been teaching Levi to wear sunglasses... to actually keep them on his face. And to my surprise, he's been very successful.

I'm dumbfounded every time I see these chubby little cheeks and button nose with mini aviator sunnies perched on top.

This last Sunday we spent the afternoon at one of our local parks.

One of the perks to living in such a hot, humid (read: sometimes miserable) climate are the free water parks and pools that are open to the public. (Apparently they have to give us some sort of incentive to live here!)

This is one of our favorites - the Riverway.

There are five different pool areas including a normal pool, a lap pool, a "lagoon", a (cold) spa, and a kiddie pool. There are free gas BBQs scattered around the place and lots of grass for picnics and games.

There are also a couple of different playgrounds and a huge bike and walking path that spans the river for miles.

It really is a wonderful place.

I'm grateful to have such amazing facilities close to us and available to us without even having to spend any money. We enjoyed a lovely Sunday together as a family... and so far, we're doing well at our quest to Reclaim Sundays.

Dear friends, were you able to take a break this weekend? What did you get up to?

lovin my sundays more than ever,

P.S. We're camping at the moment, so if I don't respond to comments and emails right away... that's why. No phones or internet for me!

Note: You can read my original post with more of what this is all about here. If you'd like to grab the Reclaiming Sundays button and join in with our family's quest to make some more time for rest in our busy lives, then please feel free. Make sure you leave me your link so I can come see and be inspired by what your family is doing. (And remember, your "Sundays" don't have to literally be on Sundays... any old day will do, as long as it's deliberate.) 

<a href="http://www.themommyhoodmemos.com" target="_blank"><img alt="The Mommyhood Memos" src="http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m223/adrielmc/reclaimingsundaysbuttonimagesize200.jpg" /></a>
(And don't worry, the button will display on your blog much smaller than the image above!:)

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011 
do not reproduce without written permission

reclaiming sundays

New Years resolutions. Some love ‘em. Some hate ‘em. Some are diligent to follow through. Many start with great ideas that never make it past a list scrawled out in a journal or on the fridge.

I didn’t make any resolutions this year (apart from a few blogging goals, which—let’s be honest—I’ve yet to even come close to implementing most of them).

But I did have one thing in particular on my heart and mind for this year… a change I wanted to make…

You see… life. is. busy.

We all know that.

Time is perhaps our most precious commodity. How we spend it, how we invest it, and how we squander it will define not only our present, but our future.

I’m tired of having days—even entire weeks—where I get to the end and think what in the world did I do with my time?

It’s all too easy to let life rule me and lead me, rather than me leading life the way I want it to go.

Yes, I am trying to be more organized and accomplish certain short-term goals… but what I’m really talking about here is the quality time I want to spend living life, enjoying life.

I’m pretty sure no one gets to the end of their days only to think, “I wish I had kept a better-organized pantry!”

So I’ve tried to be deliberate, to take advantage of my (mostly) fluid schedule. Instead of getting caught up in the business of taking care of a baby and taking care of a home, finances, part-time work responsibilities, ministry, etc. (these are all good things, mind you), I’ve tried to be intentional about also having fun with my son. You know, impromptu trips to the park, a quick play in a sink filled with bubbles, dumping a million blocks on the floor to see what we can create, or sitting down in the middle of the kitchen with him to bang on pots and pans to see what kind of noise we can create.

In fact, even at one point while writing this post Levi came up to me and started bouncing up and down near my feet. He had a wooden puzzle in his hand that he was obviously dying for me to get down on the floor and help him with. So I did.

It’s not about catering to our children’s every whim. It’s about paying attention to them, letting them remind us to be present, and remembering that they are individuals who are constantly learning, perceiving, and even forming judgments of their own (including sizing up what they deem as mama’s priorities).

I don’t want to be at the point of sending Levi off to school in a few years time and look back and wish I had spent the early days with him differently.

So I’m trying. Not always succeeding the way I’d like to, but trying nonetheless.

No doubt you can relate.

But this isn’t just about being a parent and having quality time with my kids.

It’s even bigger than that. It’s about having quality time with my husband, quality time with friends, quality time for myself, quality time set apart for God.

I’m aware, more and more, that we’re living on borrowed time.

I don’t want to look back on my life and think that I squandered the time I was given. But the sad truth for most of us is that a lack of being deliberate leads us into a slow and steady process of waste... wasted time.

And wasted time leads to a wasted life.

So my goal for this year is to reclaim Sundays in hopes that will help bring me more focus on spending my precious time well.

There is nothing magical about Sundays. In my opinion the day itself is not holy any more than a Tuesday or a Friday is. Every day is holy if only we’d treat it as such.

But like most families we have weekends off from work. Saturdays tend to be quickly filled up with chores, errands, and house/yard projects. And so that leaves Sundays – the only day of the week that we can really stop. Rest. Reflect. Recharge.

So this year I want to reclaim Sundays. I want to wake up Monday morning feeling like I’m starting my work week from a good place, from a better place.

It’s not a religious thing, although God himself understands the value of Sabbath rest for busy, hard-working people and has gone so far as commanding his followers to observe it (ie: rest, pray, play, refuel, reconnect).

But it’s more than “just” religion.

Rest, recreation, refreshing, recharging, relationships… these are as important as the air we breathe and the food that sustains us. All of it is absolutely crucial to living a healthy and balanced life… a good life.

So {dramatic pause} I want to make Sundays – whether it is the entire day or part of the day – a day that I know I can look forward to because it is one where we will deliberately draw aside from our “to do’s” in order to really enjoy life… do things that refresh us and recharge us, excite us and connect us. I want Sundays to be a day in our home that the entire family looks forward to because it means something fun is about to happen… even if that something fun is an intentional “nothing” from time to time. I want it to be a day that we are calculated about pausing the busyness in order to enjoy relationships, create memories, and focus on the things that help grow joy in hearts and homes.

I have decided that part of holding myself accountable to being deliberate about this goal will be me posting a photo or a thought or a recount of Sundays (or Saturdays or whatever day worked out for us to be “Sunday” for the week) on the Memos. I may not perfectly succeed, and I’m okay with that, but I am determined to try. I am determined to do better.

For my own sake. My for my husband’s sake. For our children’s sake.

Dear friends, please feel free to join me on my endeavor to reclaim Sundays. I’m doing this for myself, for my family, for my friends… But no doubt other blogging mamas out there could benefit from reclaiming Sundays too. I don’t want to just create another meme for the sake of gaining blog followers (*blech* I don’t have time for stuff like that anyway). But I suspect I’m not alone in my desire. If that’s you, if you want to try and reclaim Sundays too, link up with me next week and share about your own “Sunday” or special family time. (I'll have a grab button and linky open next week if you're interested in joining.) I challenge you to carve out time, be deliberate about living, and record the journey for your family’s sake and for your own.

reclaiming sundays,

P.S. It's Sunday here... and we went to the beach today..........Our day included fish and chips. And ice cream. But... more about that later. *happysighofcontentment*

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011 
do not reproduce without written permission