Wow. Time goes so fast. Each year it seems to go by faster. My boss tells me quite often that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it unrolls. I didn't understand what he meant, but now I do. I think he likes to make fun of me for getting older. His wife was my Sunday School teacher, so I've know them since I was 15. I guess now that I'm 31 I'm not so young anymore. LOL. But he's older too ;) However, yes, now I get the toilet paper analogy.
This past year has gone by especially fast. (I can't believe I haven't written a post since July! It does NOT seem that long ago!) But a year ago today, my sweet mother-in-law passed away. It's hard to believe we were walking through her last week with us a year ago already. It's hard to believe we have lived through a year's worth of life without her already. And my precious Grandmother, who I'm named after, passed away in November. We know Where they both are, and that we will see them again. But it still hurts. Especially realizing how fast time goes.
So this made me start thinking, there HAS to be a way to slow down life. To enjoy it more purposefully. To savor our short time together. We started brainstorming ideas, ways to ensure more time together. We don't have it figured out yet, but at least we are aware of the problem and on the hunt for a solution. I think this is the first step. Otherwise we go through life missing it, and turn around one day and it's done. No way. No more.
One thing we started doing is birthday-dates. Each month we strive to take each our kids out one-on-one for a Mommy or Daddy date for some quality alone time on the day of the month of their birthday. (Luckily, they each have a different day!) They have truly grown to love this time, and look forward to it every month. In fact, today, R was asking when his date night would be, knowing it is coming up :) LOVE IT! I about cried when his Awana teacher told me last week that he said his favorite part of Christmas was spending all that time with his family. What a blessing to my mommy-heart! This spoke VOLUMES to me that TIME is really the thing my kids want most from me. I hope and pray to give them more of it in the months and year to come. That said, the blog might suffer because of it, but so be it. At least now you'll know why ;)