Mundane

The question was asked to me again.  “How have you been?”  I usually do a quick mental pause before answering.  Well, honestly, nothing much has changed in quite some time.  The kids still play.  The baby still poops.  The dog still stinks.  We still do photo shoots of strangers wearing ironed ensemles in coodinated colours laughing with each other.   And, my life is still peppered with bouts of laughter followed by distasteful squabbling.  

Basically, it’s the same old, same old, so they say.  

Our excitement is mundane.  We excite ourselves with pretending to be mermaids touring each other’s grotto’s and blowing bubbles to set the mood.

Our frustrations are insignificant.  When his toy airplaine Dusty ran out of battery power, my 3 year old declared it “a hard time, Mom.”  

But it’s good.    

Life around me swirls all around.  Devastation covers the masses and trauma punches the innocent.  Disappointment faces the hard working and families are falling apart.  Life changes in an instant.    

But right now, today, my family is safe.  We are content.  We desire less, not more.  We strive to be less busy, not more.  We try to say yes a bit less, not more.  

We choose selectively what to fill our time with, making sure to leave plenty of room to embrace the perceived "hard times" at home and have time to figure out what the baby likes to do and what makes her smile.

  

But at the same time saying “yes” to those things that make memories with the people we love.  Yes, we will go to Wonderland on a Thursday to have fun with you.  Yes, we will add my precious nephew to the mix of our everyday chaos for a couple of days because we absolutely want to.  Yes, we will drive to Disney World because, of course, Lightning McQueen and Cinderella can be found.  We will learn the lyrics to Do You Wanna Build a Snowman so we can belt them out all the way there and back.  And we will go to Lowes and Home Depot with the Dad just because they have the cart that has the car steering wheel thingy in it.  

But no, we will not pack our lives with too many play dates, too many extracurriculars, and too many obligations to miss out on the wonderful mundane of life with our babies.  

After all, they say it flies by.