Earlier this week I read an article by Rachel Macy Stafford which really struck a chord with me.
In the article she talks about an “aha moment” where she realized what she was missing by rushing through her day, moving from one thing to the next on her list.
I love being busy. I love the feeling of falling into bed at night feeling accomplished and bodily tired from the efforts of the day. My husband and I have spent the last 9 years renovating our 1975 Colonial home, so there have been many weekends and week nights full of planting, weeding, painting, hammering, tiling, and framing.
However, it is a daily struggle to balance spending time with my family, reading, writing, time for what needs to be done, and time for myself. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
This article reminded me as summer winds downs to take advantage of every moment. To enjoy my children at this age. To feel the wonder of harvesting vegetables from my garden. To be open to the experiences that may never come again.
Those are the things that will drive my writing- not the loads of laundry and the dust piling up on my furniture. The chores and errands still need to get done, but they will certainly be here tomorrow.
A Life Spent Reading 
I enjoyed that article too – seems it spread like wildfire on the “mom” interwebs!
I’ve been using the timer lately. 10 minutes for us to play together and 10 minutes for the laundry and the dishes. I actually started using it so I would be more accountable to the “chores” around the house, but I found out it really lets me relax into playing with the kids. I’m not constantly wondering about how much time i “wasted” building blocks or playing trains, because the timer hasn’t gone off yet. And yep, sometimes when the timer goes off we are all playing in a really good place and it seems just right to sit there for another few minutes.