Time Well Spent

As I was cleaning the house this afternoon, two thoughts kept running through my head... The first is that my energy spent on cleaning the floors and vacuuming seems so futile... if only a house could go from chaos to clean as quickly as it goes from clean to chaos when little ones are around... My toddler has recently discovered our unbabyproofable pantry and a new hobby has become emptying cereal boxes and pasta everywhere... I mean I can't fit EVERYTHING on top of the fridge!!!

The second thought that's more importantly been coming back to me is this... I chose well today.

I could have kept myself busy at work all day, but instead, I chose to cancel an appointment and work from home, allowing me to drive the kids to school this morning and join my 2nd-grader on their class field trip to the skating rink.

I chose well.

We had a blast skating together. She didn't even care that her friends were around, my girl just wanted to skate with her mommy and didn't like the time I ever so briefly went around the rink chatting with another parent... no this was OUR time together, no other siblings around, just the two of us (the 50+ other 2nd graders on the ice didn't seem to matter). We started playing tag to catch each other on the ice, with a few of her friends even joining in at the end. Awesome mother-daughter time!

Best of all, I was so excited to see that in 2nd grade, though you're already trying to be a lady and mimic the older kids in the way they dress and do their hair, it's still cool to reach for mom's hand as we're walking to the rink with the class... That made my day ;)

The overriding lesson of the day?

The house, the laundry and my to-do-list from work... those things will all get accomplished eventually... As pressing as they sometimes feel, in reality, they can and must wait. The bottom line is this:

I'll never regret giving my kids more of my time... building bonds, communication, character, faith...

That will always be time well spent at the end of the day.

Compassion for Haiti

I woke up to the radio yesterday with the news of the earthquake in Haiti... Yikes... News of the poorest country in the western hemisphere being hit so hard is tough... My heart has been heavy...

I've heard of two separate instances where friends of friends had just left Haiti, in one case the day before the earthquake hit returning from working in an orphanage... in another, 90 minutes before it hit returning from a medical relief trip... too many were not so lucky... they weren't flying off to safe distant lands, but were hit... HARD.

As I write in my warm and comfy home, contemplating going to bed early or getting a bit of work done... CBC news today reported the Red Cross estimating 50,000 dead... others are reporting 100,000 dead... Emergency aid from around the world is arriving, struggling to bring supplies as devastation is all-around and search and rescue efforts continue.

We may not all be able to mobilize and hit the ground to help in person as friends' of ours have done... but we can all take some time to pray for the hurting people, for the search and rescue efforts, for the protection of all and for aid and supplies to get to those who need it most.

"Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.

Do not forget the helpless."

Psalm 10:12

We must also take a minute to donate to help get more aid and supplies on the ground. My inbox and Facebook are inundated with organizations pleading for help and donations to further their work where they have already been established for several years... Compassion, Canadian Red Cross, Power to Change, and World Vision... No matter where you choose to donate, lets work together to get aid on the ground to those who are so desperate for our help... here's a bit more info on one of these organizations for your info...

World Vision in Haiti...

World Vision is on the ground right now in the Haitian city of Port-Au-Prince, helping families and children devastated by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake Tuesday afternoon. Your donations are vital to the relief efforts and are needed today. Every dollar makes a difference and now if you give a donation to the Haiti Earthquake victims through World Vision, by February 12th, it will double in impact due to a generous contribution from the Canadian Government.

With an international response team flying in from around the globe to assist, our relief efforts are underway. World Vision Haiti is now distributing emergency supplies to families and children struggling to deal with this catastrophic disaster. World Vision has been working in Haiti for over 30 years, helping an estimate 300,000 Haitians each year to overcome poverty through providing access to education, improved access to food and clean water and improved nutrition as well as helping families with improved medical care.

Now, more than ever, your help is needed to help families in Haiti and let them know they are not alone in this emergency. Click here to donate now.

Marriages need protection!

In November, my husband and I were in Vancouver for his graduation from the Arrow Leadership Program. During that time, we took part in 1-day marriage seminars which was awesome and we still have things to debrief from that time together! I left there very encouraged about the state of our marriage and of our communication as a couple.

Oh how much we have grown over the last 10 years of marriage! Has it already been that long?? Crazy. (we celebrate our anniversary in a few months!) Making more time for fun as a couple and family being a priority on what to improve upon as we wrap up a crazy busy year of me back to work and a husband in school... We look forward to a change of pace in the coming months but in the meantime we continue to steal time away for quality time together and the girls and I have been doing a lot of skating to get outdoors while daddy is studying!

Back from Vancouver, I was already thinking about marriage when I was once again reminded of how important it is to PROTECT our marriages, investing in our relationship with our spouse instead of so easily taking it for granted, as I recently heard the crushing news of another marriage going south. I took this news hard... this was a family I was once very close to in my younger days... I was SHOCKED at the news and the circumstances. And it just reinforced the fact that we MUST invest in our marriages and do all we can to protect them. The greatest gift we can ever give our kids is to keep our marriages strong... It is clear once again as the kids in that family are now left in the balance trying to figure out life in light of their new hurtful circumstances... tough way to begin a new year...

In all of that, I am more thankful then ever for my awesome husband. We are SO blessed with our beautiful children. I continue to commit to being intentional in loving my husband and family well... (read Nicolle Huggins' article in the Feb/March 2010 issue of Mom's Moments for more on that! - coming soon!)