Finding The Time

Some of my friends wonder where I find the time to blog, knit, and read. These are things I MAKE time for, because if I don't, my brain will turn to mashed bananas. Let me tell you a little secret that, if you didn't know already, you could have guessed: I'm a pretty smart woman, and the stay-at-home-mommy thing doesn't really take a whole lot of thinking. Play with a two year old, take the six year old to school, make breakfast, make lunch, do the dishes, do some laundry, keep the house somewhat clean, nothing about that exercises my brain. (Unless I try to do three or four things at once, which is another post.) So, I make time to do things that make me think. Now, here's another secret that you could guess if you thought about it: my kids are expected to entertain themselves while I do these things for me. Moms of little ones, take notes: they were not born knowing how to do this - I trained them to do it. This is a very lovely skill to teach your kids. You have to start small and you have to help them lots at first. With Samuel, I'd start by playing something with him - trains, puzzles, whatever - and then you leave for five minutes, saying "I got to go do ___ and I'll be back in five minutes." After he starts to get it, you leave for longer and longer periods of time. Finally, you get to the stage that you can say, "I'm going to do my computer work (SSSHHH - he thinks it's my work) so you go play in your room for a while." Samuel can entertain himself for 20-40 minutes at a time now, longer if I let him watch Chicken Little, which I save for emergencies.

My editor is at school, so I can tell you a story about her :) When we were sick, we had to cancel a trip. We were supposed to go visit my folks for a few days, and my sister and her boys were there, too. We were very sad about this. To cheer me up, my mom told me that everything happens for a reason, and perhaps God made us sick to keep us home to avoid something bad that was going to happen on our trip. I told this to Sally, who was very cheered up by the thought. So fast forward to right after my mom calls to tell me that SHE is sick. I find Sally and tell her that now Grandma is sick, and she sighs and says, "Oh good!" Huh? I looked at her funny and she says, "I'm so glad that God made Grandma sick to protect her from bad things, too!" So sweet, isn't she?