Slow down

A couple years ago my husband and I went away for the weekend without kids.  Our oldest was almost five at the time and that was our first trip with no kids.  It was so nice to get away!  I think the best part was not having to be anywhere at a certain time.  I'm sure that's the best part of any vacation but if you have kids along it's different.  Then you are tied to a certain schedule of naps and feedings.
On that trip though we were free!  We could do anything we wanted at any pace we wanted.  That slow pace was so nice.  At this phase of life it feels like I have to do everything at a dead run.  I am so busy "doing" though that it's hard for me to slow down and do things at the kids pace.

Do you ever see a parent walking along holding hands with their child but oblivious that they are dragging the poor kid.  The poor little thing just can't keep up.  I shake my head when I see that but feel like I'm doing that in other ways.  Shoot.  Maybe I do actually drag my kids along sometimes.  I always feel so hurried and like I have so much to do, but do I really?  All of it will still be there whether I'm feeling frazzled and in a rush about it or not, so I need to slow down.  My kids shouldn't have to run to keep up with me or worry if they are interrupting me. I need to slow down when they're getting dressed, getting in the car, eating... If I'm going to slow down for my kids we need to be less busy.  Makes sense but why is it so hard?  It is SO hard to not be too busy!  I don't know if it's just this phase of life or if it's how life is today because it's like this for everyone I know.  We love to have people over but it's really hard to find people who've got the free time for it.

I'm currently reading the book "No More Perfect Moms" and she talks about how we need to have a larger margin in our lives.   I couldn't find the exact quote but she said that the margin or white space in a book is important to the page and without it, it'd be hard to read.   We need that extra white space in our lives for breathing room.  We need margin in time and margin in our finances so when extra things come up it's not so stressful.  In order to do that we have to say "no" to things, narrow down activities and friendships and make some choices.  We recently got rid of satellite and Netflix and have been working at watching less TV.  That has helped free up some time.  It also helps when I limit my computer time.

I would love to say that I pray about our schedule but the truth is I usually forget to pray about things until after I've committed.  I used to feel more pressure not wanting to miss out on things but don't feel like I struggle with that anymore.  Four kids has cured me of that.  I'm so busy just taking care of the basics that some of the things I used to worry about have gone out the window.  Since we homeschool   we have more free time than some families.  We are able to do lots of activities but it's easy to over commit.  I do need to work harder at praying before I add things to our schedule though.  If everything on the calendar is ok'd by God then it'll be easier to have peace while getting it all done.