I have been trying really hard lately to just SLOW DOWN whenever I can. Life moves by way too fast all on its own and paired with our ultra-busy lifestyle, I feel like it just wooshes by before I even know it.We ALWAYS have some place to be every single day. Work, Dance, Soccer, School, Church, needing to run errands or head to a gathering of one kind or another.
And at the same time life is wooshing by, I am typically trying to capture the moment somehow so that I don't forget the little things.
But I realized that I just need to BE a little bit more and capture some moments just in my head, and maybe not with my camera.
When Gianna doesn't have school and when I don't have work we call those Stay Home Days. We talk about when the next stay home day is by how many sleeps there are until the next one. It's fun. It doesn't me we literally STAY HOME, just that wherever we go, we get to go together.
Yesterday I was supposed to meet friends for coffee, head to church with the girls and run a few errands. But coffee got cancelled and the girls seemed extra tired.
So I called it early that morning - it was an official (accidental) Stay Home Day. I can't tell you the last time this happened - where I did not go ANYWHERE. The week Aleesia was born, I think we actually stayed home for 2 days in a row. It has been at least 7.5 months since we had 1 day where we didn't leave the house. (Mike did have to go to work yesterday, which was a little sad)
We fed Aleesia and played with her until it was time for her nap. When she slept Gianna and I cleaned up the house, made some applesauce, painted, had a good lunch together and danced around the living room in our PJs! We FaceTimed with my niece for her birthday (how is she 1?) too! Aleesia woke up from her nap, we played with a new-to-her toy together & she went back to sleep (she wasn't feeling too hot). So G and I played some more, talked, hung out - spent some MUCH MUCH needed time together while her sissy was snoozing away.
At one point, I had just put Aleesia back down for her nap after she fell asleep in my arms and Gianna was sitting in her My Little Pony underwear on the living room floor painting a rainbow with the biggest smile on her face. And I just sat there and smiled with her. Capturing that moment not on my camera, but in my memory. An Accidental Stay Home Day to catch up on home things had turned in to just what we needed to regroup before the start of another busy busy week. It was a perfect Sunday. Filled with perfect moments.
check out the other Perfect Moments here.
Awesome! I love those underprogrammed kind of days, especially when they are unexpected. I also love taking mental pictures of perfect moments too, as hard as it is sometimes for me to forgo taking real photos at the time if I have a camera with me. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou highlight for me the power of space, of leaving empty slot for spontaneous things like dancing and connecting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post, Andrea :-)
Wow. I don't know how you manage to keep up that pace. I am so tired when the weekend comes (and there's so much to do at home), I never really want to go anywhere on the weekends. But we need to get out so J doesn't go nuts.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a lovely day!