I need….

There are lots of things I want in my life.  I want a clean house.  I want a new king size bed (to replace the queen that gets super crowded with two kids and a husband in it with me).  I want to update my bathroom.  I want…I want…I want…

But there are things I need.  Things I need to do and learn.

I need to

• Put away my cell phone and play with my kids.  They’re only little once and text messages can wait.
• Make fun crafts at home with the girls.  I work so I only have a few hours a day to spend with them.
• Spend less time worrying about cleaning and more time making messes with my kids.
• Listen to my girls wants.  And whenever possible, do what they want instead of what I think is “right.”
• Be a better mom.

Now the truth is, most of my friends reading this will read that last one and say “No, you are a great mom.”  I may be.  But don’t we all have room for improvement?  If we run ourselves ragged trying to do this and do that and make practices and cook dinner and everything else in the world, when do we spend time with those little people that we so greatly wanted and that we created?

This morning, as we got ready for daycare, I realized I was spending too much time worrying about what the girls were going to wear.  They didn’t want to wear this shirt or that shirt or those pants or those shoes.  Finally, instead of dictating what they were going to do I listened to them.  I listened as Little C said she wanted to wear her purple high heels (that match her Rapunzel dress).  Ok I finally said.  You can wear them.  She giggled in excitement and took off running to the shoe chest.  Little G asked if she could wear high heels too so of course I said yes, as I put extra shoes in a bag to take to daycare.  When I next turned around I saw Cinderella and Rapunzel standing before me.  The twins had changed not just their shoes, but also their clothes and put on dress up clothes.

“Mommy?” Little C said quietly.  “Can I be ‘Punzel at school?”

So today, I let my princesses go to school as princesses.  Step one in listening and being a better mom.