On this last day of 2009 I want you to give yourself a gift for the coming year. Not a resolution mind you, because don't we all break them before February even gets here.

It's a precious gift that we all wish we had more of but the fact is we all get the same amount. Everyday.

Time.

It sounds silly to give yourself something we already have but it's what you do with your time. I wish I had given myself this gift years ago.

I felt, like most of us, that I just didn't have enough hours in everyday and tried to make it all fit anyway. I needed to do just one more thing and once that was finished I needed to do just one more. And to be interrupted from doing that thing.........it wasn't a pretty sight. It needed (whatever it was) to get done right now. Right Now. And if it didn't? I didn't really have an answer...... it just needed to...... right then. I found myself telling the kids "In a minute" and the minute never came. I found myself shrugging off my husbands embrace because I had the "just one more thing" to do. Not because I didn't want that touch or the time with my children. I just lost sight of what was truly important somewhere along the way.

If only I had taken the time to think it through. To realize that the dishes weren't going anywhere but my children were growing. To see that my husband longed for me and waiting 10 minutes to put in the towels to wash didn't really matter. I felt all along that being busy made me a good mother, a good wife, but I wasn't giving anyone what they wanted and needed.

I have worked on changing this about myself these last eight months. I have come a long way, I'm still not where I want to be, but nevertheless different. My children are happier for it and so am I. No fairies come at night to do the things I missed during the day, I'm just learning to live with it. I can have a clean home when my children are grown.

So give yourself time in 2010. Think it through. Do you really need to make those cupcakes from scratch? Or could you make some from a box and spend that extra time coloring with your kids? Don't worry about impressing the other moms because in ten years they wont even remember your name but your babies will still be here - no longer babies. Dinner can wait fifteen more minutes while you give your husband those kisses he waited all day for. Because if you wait until you get it all done you will have nothing left to give.


I loved like I should
Lived like I shouldn't
I had to lose everything to find out.
-Rascal Flatts