It's Monday morning. Everyone is up bright and early and the house is, as always, a busy one. It's Justin's morning to work-out (we alternate) so I'm in the midst of getting our 4 year old and 2 1/2 year old fed, dressed, lathered with sunscreen (fun!), and out the door to summer camp. Things have stalled because the two of them are arguing over who gets to bring the chocolate toy donut in their backpack today. I scramble to find the other toy donut so it's a non-issue. I find a strawberry one. Needless to say, the argument is now over who gets the chocolate and who gets the strawberry toy donut.
In the corner of my eye, I see our 11 month old baby boy who has been casually crawling around in search of choking hazards. He is pulling out the wifi cord (*make a mental note to self, figure out how to baby-proof this thing). While I tend to him, the other two work out the donut argument on their own. Small win!
At 8:00am our nanny arrives and takes the little guy. I breathe a sigh of relief. I get myself upstairs to shower, get ready and take a few moments for myself.
When I come down, they aren't close to ready to go. But it's okay, and instead of saying hustle and hurry up as I so often do, we playfully apply sunscreen, encouraging them to rub it in until it magically disappears. Finally, we're out the door and the day can begin - their excitement for the first day of camp is next level and I'm determined to take some of their energy with me for the rest of my day.
In the past, I would have rushed through the routine, gotten stressed out if we were 5 minutes behind, and not nearly been as present. And there are certainly days when I still do those things, but I'm getting better.
Finding any amount of time on a busy morning like this can seem impossible, but if you can carve out just 3 minutes for yourself, the pay out is priceless. I'm truly a better mom because of it and I am grateful for Slowlii encouraging me to take the time I need to show up better.