Take Time To Smell The Roses... And Give One More Kiss Goodnight...

I recently read a book called Choosing To See by Mary Beth Chapman. If you're not familiar with the Chapmans, Steven Curtis Chapman is a Christian music artist and Mary Beth is his wife. They have three children of their own and they adopted three children from China. In May of 2008, the youngest child was hit by a car driven by her older brother and was killed. Choosing To See is the about the Chapman's life and about the tragic accident that their family has been struggling through.

Something that really stood out to me in this book was when Mary Beth was talking about how busy their lives were and how looking back she wishes she'd spent more time playing and less time working, more time snuggling and less time worrying about the house, one more kiss, one more hug, one more...

I've really been thinking about this a lot lately as I go about my busy life running kids here and there, throwing dinner on the table, rushing through showers and bedtime routines, etc. I get so caught up in the day to day stuff that I don't take time to stop and smell the roses or to give that one more snuggle, one more kiss or hear one more story.

I've been making a conscious effort at bedtime every night to try and slow it down... To make sure that both kids get all of their kisses, hugs and snuggles and all of their 'mama kisses' and not just to go through the motions, but to actually ENJOY those moments. Those are moments that could be taken away at any time (although I pray every day that they're NOT taken from me) and moments that I can never get back.

I'm not moving mountains or stopping the Earth from spinning but I *AM* trying to capture more and more of those moments a little bit at a time. Every time I find myself rushing, the words from Mary Beth's book fill my head and guilt overcomes me. I'm trying... I'm trying...