in the moment

I've been reading a lot online, on mommy blogs or various other places, about being an "in the moment" mom and, not shockingly, the more I read on line the more I become convicted and the more I tend to hear (or maybe listen) to other mom's- older mom's who say, "appreciate what you have" or "they grow so fast" or "I loved those little years- they go by too quickly". I know that these years go quickly. Sometimes I find myself praying they will go quickly. But, it's often hard to live like these years will go by quickly. It's easy to get so bogged down in the daily's of life- to become overwhelmed with the huge mound of laundry piling up- to only see the endless messes, the endless poopy diapers, the endless feeding and cleaning that comes with having a lot of little kids. But, I know that's not what life is about. I know that to please God with my life I don't have to complete my checklist of chores each day, but sometimes it's easier to do that than to stay in the moment and cheerfully change that 500th poopy diaper or wipe that spill up for what seems like the 6,000th time. I started a marriage bible study with some amazing women and our conversation last week revolved around doing the things that really matter to our husbands-not necessarily the things that are easiest for us or the things that we think are the most important and I think that spills over into our kids, too. I was (and continue to be) incredibly convicted about how I spend a good portion of my day working on my own agenda- whether it be a craft that I want to do or some cleaning task. My kids are so much less structured and their wants/desires are so much less than what I make them out to be. Hailey would love to do crafts, but she's more than happy to just have me sit and play ponies with her. Jackson is often begging me to sit and read books to him (mostly the same one over and over and over and over...), but somehow I feel like i need to create bigger and more important things for us to do. I think I just get so bogged down with being a "good mom" or a "good wife" that I truly miss out on the moments that make a good mom or a good wife. I forget that my kids and my husband really just need me to be present- unoccupied and cheerfully giving of my time and attention to them!