The whispering of the important

It was the leprechaun traps.
You know the ones EVERY teacher requests in Kindergarten.   It's got to be green, shiny, and well designed to catch the clever, sneaky leprechauns!  Then you get to school you find that some families show up looking like they spent every free minute, the last six months making theirs big and beautiful!

Unfortunately, this is probably my most UNfavorite parent at home project during the school year.  Probably because St. Patrick's Day is not my favorite holiday and I don't do any really fun things with my kids to celebrate besides maybe some green meals, I know boring!

However it was this little project that I was reminded about the important, not the urgent.  Things like leprechaun traps are a big deal when you're five.  In fact, the eight and ten year old around here are still excited about the details and finishing touches.  The two year old was mainly guilty of pulling off any chocolate, gold nuggets and promptly eating them before anyone noticed!!  (I can't blame him, they are the yummy ones with toffee pieces!)

I had a busy day.  I was gone most of the day between a stop at FedEx, the bank, picking kids up from school, beeing visited and doing my visiting teaching, Dr. appointment in Sacramento, dinner (burned, as in KILLED a potato because I left it in while I set my oven to self clean, but that's another story...) scouts, swim clinic, back to Joanne's, etc.  I did have an hour when I was planning to get a few "urgent" things done (normal stuff -email returns, order Andrew's scriptures, etc.), actually not that URGENT.  But my girls really wanted my help.  MY help.  Not anyone else's.  Even willing siblings and Dad.  So, I remembered what I write EVERY week in my planner as I turn the page onto next week. I re-write the words "Do the important not just the urgent". Obviously not because I am perfect at it, but because I believe in it.  I want to always choose the important, in my mothering and in every decision with my time and energy.  I want when the "urgent" is screaming, but the important is whispering, to still choose the important.  I want to be better at this.

I haven't been a consistent follower of Oprah for the last several years, but did happen to catch a show maybe two years ago on motherhood.  Of course, Oprah, although not a mother herself, repeatedly says that "motherhood is the hardest job on the planet".  There was a young mother who spoke about the desire to spend more time with her child.  And then she went through her day.  She had gotten older kids to school, showered and gotten herself ready, checked a few emails, cleaned up the house, eaten lunch, gone to the grocery store and to run a few additional errands, picked up other children from school and began the dinner and homework routine all before baths and the rest of the evening began.  Whew!  Had she played with the baby?  Well the baby had played independently.  The baby had been fed, changed and put down for a nap.  What did she miss out on?  Did the urgent get taken care of?  Probably so.  But what about the important?

This is only the first part.  This choosing the important can be hard sometimes.  Sometimes it's easy.  Sometimes you don't want to make a leprechaun trap.  But when you do CHOOSE the important then comes PART TWO.  Are you really THERE emotionally?   

This same mother on the Oprah show then she hit the nail on the head, she said "and BE there!"  Not be thinking about checking my email, what we will have for dinner, what phone calls I need to make, to change the clothes from the washer into the dryer, who needs this, who needs that, etc. etc.

OK so now we are talking!  We are digging deep to connect with our kids.  To really BE THERE, more than just our body sitting and playing trains, doing puzzles, and reading books.  Living in the moment, taking it all in.  Actually connecting with our kids and "getting into it", even if it's making a leprechaun trap.  Enjoying the time sitting, building, cutting, gluing, and talking with our kids - that is where the true JOY in motherhood comes in.

The important is quieter and sometimes harder than the urgent, but oh so worth the GOLD at the end of the rainbow!!