A Rainy Day Lesson

I woke up this morning with so much to do. We had a wonderful weekend, but wonderful weekends usually lead to a messy house and a grocery list that is a mile long.

I spent the morning getting Noah dressed, cleaning the house and making lists of things that we needed to do when the stores opened at ten. Then, when it was time, I put on all (what seems like) ten layers of clothes on both of us to get out for the day. Oh, wait, let me add, that was after a hunt for a missing left shoe that ended up in the trash bag...somehow.

We were finally ready and we stepped outside.

To rain.

I knew the night before that it was supposed to rain today and I had completely forgotten about it.

Back inside we went. Our shoes, hats and jackets came off. And after several minutes of explaining to a very upset toddler, who was face down on the floor screaming, that it was too wet to go outside, I was left with a couple of hours before nap time and not too much planned.

So I put on some comfy clothes and we played. We made play dough animals. We colored Elmo and some Care Bears, we snuggled under blankets and watched TV, we read a dozen books and we ate lunch...together.

And my heart was so happy. Happier than it would have been if I would have gone out for two hours and got every little thing checked off my list. And it made me realize how many times the busyness of life gets in the way of being a mom and just simply playing with my sweet boy. It had been a while since we had spent this much time at once together in this way.

And my son doesn't care if the fridge is completely stocked or if the laundry is piling up higher than Mt. Fuji and he certainly doesn't care about what my old high school friend's have been up to on Facebook.

It helped me realize how important it is to just play with him at this age. Maybe the house won't be perfect, and maybe I won't be up to date with the latest news story or TV show, and maybe that assignment for school would have to wait just a couple hours more. And you know what? That stuff doesn't really make me that happy any way. I need to make time in my day to just be a mom.

I thank God for moments like this. When our plans don't go exactly like we want to, but in the end it ends up being a far better day than you could have planned on your own. And I thank God for quiet moments like these, when I realize the important things in life, need to be just that.

Important.