Plan A Family Game Night!

Sierra got a scrabble game a long time ago. On the front cover it says, "Plan A Family Game Night!" We rarely ever play games, but I made it happen tonight. Gram loves scrabble so we played at her house (plus she knows all the rules and I don't). The other day Sierra was at Gram's and she started saying "Mom never just sits down to snuggle with me. Dad will turn on a movie and snuggle, but Mom never does." Gram (who is a busy bee like me) tried to defend me by listing all that I have to do, how I'm running the house on my own half the month, etc. I started to feel really guilty when I heard all that. The quote, "If you want happy kids, play with your kids" is always running through my mind. I try really hard to make sure the kids are getting 30-60 min exercise after school, plus homework, plus chores, plus the daily make it eat it clean it up, and *poof* all the time is gone. I'm whimpering to the choir, you all are dealing with this also. I remember LeAnne telling me that her mom rarely sat down, and when she did the girls would read to her & just treasure that time. If only I didn't need sleep, then I could cook and clean all night and devote all day to the kids.
Author and pastor, Mark Buchanan, suggested that it’s rhythm, not balance, that we need to travel through life’s different seasons: "Balance is this kind of unicorn, I think, we’re chasing, that we never catch. We catch little glimpses of it–we think–and then we never get hold of it, because I don’t think it’s the thing we’re supposed to be going after. It’s rhythm. And every season that comes upon us has this inherent lopsidedness".
I can't hear the word "rhythm" without thinking of Steve Martin shouting "I've got rhythm" in the movie The Jerk. So, that's what I'm going for here I guess, a rhythm that changes often but always keeps moving forward. I want to record as much as I can so when the house finally gets quiet, I can listen to it all over again.
(p.s. I also can't hear the word "unicorn" with out thinking of that quote from "Better off Ted" where they say: "That's like beating a unicorn to death with a bag of rainbows!")


**Wrote this post then pulled out this month's Ensign. This parenting article is awesome: Helping Without Hovering