I’m sure many of you parents who spend a lot of time with your children, and who also have some other responsibilities other than parenting find yourselves pulled in a hundred directions.  That’s not news to anybody.  And to me, it’s definitely not new news.

Many times this week, I have told myself to stop.  To stop trying to check my email while playing with my kids.  To stop brushing off Brayden’s requests and ideas for some later time. To stop thinking of my to-do list.  To be intentional.  And to be focused.  And to give my attention for longer than ten minutes to my children.

We ventured to the library right after nap time, which proved to be the best time to go, ever.  Our new library has a great children’s section and there was no one else there.  It was glorious.  We spent an hour there.  I thought I was past the point where I needed to lug a diaper bag everywhere, but I was proven wrong.  Carter pooped.  Twice.  I had to ask the librarian for a diaper.  Twice.  It was a little on the embarrassing side, but the bathroom sign said that if I needed a diaper, I could ask for a “rescue” one at the desk.  Asking for two rescue diapers seemed a little on the desperate side, but what could I do?  We did have a great time, other than the pooping fiasco, and we came home with lots of fun things that we checked out.

After that, it was decent enough to play outside.  (See yesterday’s post about our ridiculously mild winter weather so far).  We spent about an hour out there.  James had already put away all the outside toys, so we had three balls and a stick.  But with a lot of that stuff called GRASS, we actually could run around and do nothing while still having fun.

Being intentional isn’t difficult.  It’s just a mindset.  I’d like to find that mindset a little more often.