Working to get to Wednesday so the progression to Friday is not as long? Well… slow it down a bit. The race with time and our days is what this Wednesday Work Blog is about!
I took one of our little ones to run errands with me the other day. Time is his love language and so is mine. We used to frequently run errands together. Yet with his getting older, and having brothers, I thought he no longer had much interest in that. I guess I stopped asking him to go with me. But the other night I did and he said yes.
We got into the car and as we were driving down the road he started reliving a memory. It was one of us walking in the neighborhood about the same time of day. He described it in detail. This gave me pause because I can remember the details of memories I hold dear. I relived the moment with him and he asked if we could do that again at the same time of day… to which I said, “Of course we can”!
Then as we walked into Home Depot (our first errand) he put the brakes on and said, “I have another memory coming to me”! And I knew the memory he was about to describe because it was flooding me too. And it was one of the last memories of our running errands together. You know… before life got so busy.
The memory was of our leaving a toy store. I had purchased terrain vehicles for him and his brother. We then went to Home Depot and we made a memory out of it. We took fun pics of the cars in the tall plants… to portray them in wild surroundings of the jungle. He began describing the memory. I relived it with him and then asked, “Why not make new ones tonight? We don’t have cars but we can pretend you’re the one in a jungle!” He loved that idea!
The image in this blog is one of the pics we took. We took it with the flash on so his eyes would be red. We said, “This creature is not hiding from us, we see him lurking in the bush”! You can see his eyes peeking through at the top of the image. He loved it and began taking pics of me.
The next stop was the grocery store and the pics below detail some of our fun there. The yucky face id for the gourd/pumpkin that has barnacles on it!
This one around his neck was shaped like a snake!
He was elated with our time together and making memories. As we said goodnight to one another, we promised to continue that routine more often.
The next afternoon I went to the store again. He wanted to go too and did. I told him I needed to water my flowers when I got home and he asked if he could help me. I said, “Of course you can!” Then we are chips and Queso Dip before his going to bed. He was such a happy camper.
Then he said the strangest thing to me. He said, “I’m so happy and sad at the same time”. I was cleaning the kitchen while he finished his chips. He said it about three more times. Then I finally clued in and asked why he was sad. He said, “I love doing things with you and I don’t want this to end”. To which I said, “Baby, we can do it more often. I don’t know why we’ve neglected these things, but we can do this as often as you want to”. He then smiled really big and said, “Really”? And I said, “Really”. Then he began estimating how often we should do it saying, “Maybe we should do it twice a week… or twice every other week? What do you think?” To which I assured him that it could happen as often as he wanted it to happen. He and I were both happy as he finished eating his chips.
After he was in bed, I had a touch of sadness. How had I let so much time slip between our times of making memories? Once I questioned it I saw the answer… we’re all too busy. We’re busy getting from one week to the other… then from one month to the other and from one season to the other. Before we know it, the kids will be grown and we won’t know where the time went.
On this Wednesday Work Blog remember… don’t rush your week along waiting for the weekend. It will arrive on time. Instead, let’s enjoy each day and look for memory making opportunities in them. And treasure that time with your loved ones. Make that your priority! You’ll be glad you did!
And remember… Friday is always acomin’ but most importantly, Christ is coming back too!