Four years ago – on Leap Day – my second son had a seizure in the car while I was driving our oldest to school. He had had seizures before but none while we were driving. And maybe this sounds silly, but I had always tried to protect my other kids from seeing a seizure by sending them in another room when it happened. My oldest was sitting next to him and still says this was the worst day of his life – watching his brother go through this and not being able to help him. I was able finally find a place to pull over and make sure everyone was safe. After returning home he had another one, followed by an ambulance ride to the hospital because we couldn’t get them to stop. My husband had just left for a work conference and I couldn’t get a hold of him because he was on an airplane heading across the country to Texas. My little two were 18 months and just barely 3. They were SO busy. It was a crazy horrible day. I will never forget the neighbor who came and took care of the little ones. My parents lived about an hour away and immediately came to our aide. As bad as the day was, there were blessings and tender mercies.
Well – I had big hopes to spend that afternoon making a Leap Day Time Capsule. It was going to be awesome. I was going to be that super-cool mom. The kid were going to have so much fun….and we were going to include so many artifacts and information!
Needless to say that didn’t happen. It wasn’t until a few days later that I felt I could wrap my head around it and we made our time capsule. I felt pretty lame at the time because it was so simple. The kids drew pictures. I wrote down some stats about them and about our family.
But it was all I could manage.
I still remember feeling so let down that my original plans didn’t work.
But I’m so glad I pushed through and at least did something. Because this morning the kids got such a kick out of looking at them!
Apparently the word poop was funny then and it’s still funny now. (I hope it won’t be as funny in 4 years!)
It has taken me until today – four years later to realize this lesson.
You don’t have to do Pinterest-worthy fancy things with your kids to make memories.
This took so little effort and was worth every bit and more! This morning was a blast. The kids LOVED it! You should have heard them giggle and laugh at their pictures.
My 7 year old girl couldn’t believe her picture. She said “Mom…I did not draw that, it is just scribbles!”
My 5 year old boy said “I liked Thomas the train? I didn’t know that!”
My 3 year old cried that she didn’t have a picture…so I gave her the picture I drew 4 years ago that included information about our family.
Sometimes I think my 20 minute work out or slow run is lame. I feel let down because my original plans to lose weight or get a PR at a race don’t pan out. Sometimes I think I am completely being that lame mom and letting my kids down all the time. I feel like I am failing.
But anything is better than nothing.
And that is not failing!
That is doing the best I can.
Everyone has bad days. I can let bad days stand in my way, I can throw in the towel and forget it all, or I can put on my big girl pants and roll with Plan B. Plan B might be a short run, a slow run. Plan B might be a walk. Plan B might be a snuggle with your kids on the couch with movies because you can’t do any thing else at the moment. But it’s something.
And it took me 4 years, and watching my kids this morning to teach me that Plan B can have some pretty awesome results.
Happy Leap Day.
