Just a Minute...

In church today, there was an excellent talk about procrastination.  It had a different spin than the usual in that it talked about how we need to not procrastinate time spent with our families.  This is something that I have been aware of and attempt to avoid.  Ironically, just last night, LJ was tugging on me, wanting me to come with up stairs while he brushed his teeth and got ready for bed.  Usually, I take that couple minutes to start cleaning up things around the kitchen and last night was no different.  I really wanted to finish scrubbing a couple of bits of applesauce off of the kitchen table before I did anything else.  It was extremely frustrating to LJ.  (He has been a little extra-clingy since we were out of town for a week and have thrown his schedule off.)  As I was scrubbing, I had the thought, "Seriously, why would I rather scrub a table when I could cuddle with this sweet kid?"  The talk today just helped to put it in even better perspective.  Our families really are the most important things we have.  Sure, they will always be our family but that doesn't mean they should always be placed on the back burner.

It reminded me a bit of a quote by Catherine M. Wallace that I have in my office which states, "Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what.  If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff."

The talk today referred trying to not always tell our kids, "just a minute...let me finish this," but also to not put off time with our spouse.  More often than not, Doug and I cancel our date nights because it is just too difficult logistically to get out and do something.  I even did the "Year of Dates" for Doug for Christmas this year.  It is August and I don't think we have done a single one that wasn't one of the easy ones at home or brought the kids with us.  (Although we did go away for a week without kids so that should count for something.)  I've heard it said that babysitters are not cheap but they are much cheaper than marriage counselors so DATE!  We get it.  We do.  We understand.  But we procrastinate just assuming we'll make up for it the following month.  Hopefully we'll work on that next month.  You know, once LJ's separation anxiety has gone down a notch.  And hopefully, new obstacles don't appear.  (Any tips would be welcome.)