I Mean It!

Four day weekend for the kids, starting today. Why, oh why, are they up this morning EARLIER than the time I always wake them from a deep slumber on a school day??!! We let them stay up an hour later than usual last night, and they're up early this morning.

Scott and I stayed up late last night, too, watching "She's Having a Baby." We had been quoting lines from it over Christmas Break, and it made me want to see it again, so I put it on our Netflix queue. (one of our favorite lines....when the mother-in-law describes the painful birth of her daughter who was a breech baby, the father-in-law says, "well you're all right now...") Man, I love that movie. It's funny, the music is great, and it teaches a great lesson.

Jake (the Kevin Bacon character) says in the end that he realizes he'd just been along for the ride in his life. He'd taken more than he'd given, had been loved more than he loved....Its a lesson about being intentional. Doing what we do on purpose. Meaning it. And I am all over that intentionality thing, or, let me rephrase that, I want to live a life that is all about intentionality.

I want to parent intentionally. But this morning, we're all home, and I had the kids clean their rooms, which helped them discover there are fun things to do. No school, no schedule, it's nice. So, everyone is doing their own thing, and I'm here at the computer doing my thing. It just kind of happened. And the whole day could slip away, with me never really connecting with anyone. Days, weekends, I guess even whole childhoods could slip away that way. It's fine for us all to do our own things, just as long as it's intentional, and as long as there is some time spent connecting somewhere along the way....

In the movie, Jake is explaining his revelation on top of a Kate Bush song, "This Woman's Work," that has lines in it saying, "Give me these moments back, give them back to me. All the things I should've done that I never did, all the things I should've said that I never said...." We don't get the moments back. That's why we gotta' use them on purpose. If we're purposely having a day of each doing their own thing, that's marvy. If all the days are like that, maybe not so much.

Here's to intentionally relating with the family over the course of this long weekend!