wherever I am, there i am (rethinking multi-tasking)

Ah, multi-tasking.

It's the gold standard of good motherhood. The yardstick, the benchmark, the paradigm of whether or not things get done in a day. I need to be able to fix lunch, make a phone call, wipe a nose, and oversee the clean up of the lego's...all at the same time.

And while I won't argue that multi-tasking is a necessity to surviving as a mom, I've been extremely convicted lately that I need to NOT multi-task so much. Or be more intentional about the times that I choose to multi-task.

I know, I'm speaking heresy in mom speech...but hear me out.

The consequences of multi-tasking (as applied to mommyhood) is that I may be there with my kids, but I'm not really there with them. I am present in body, but far far away in mind.

I am fixing them breakfast, but not sitting and eating and talking with them.

I am getting them dressed, but thinking about that phone call I need to make.

I am spending the whole day with my kids...but I haven't really been with them.

And I'm not fooling anyone. Especially my kids.

I know when I'm talking with Jeremiah and he is not really engaged in the conversation. Any wife knows that feeling. And it is not a good feeling. Why would I think I was pulling anything over on my kids by only half listening, half engaging?

I don't feel that my life and daily routine need a major overhaul. I just need to remember to slow down. To engage. To take those 10 minutes and sit and color with Ella and talk with her. To build a train track with the boys...not just watch them build it while I stand at the counter on my computer trying to pay bills and halfheartedly look over every once in a while and say what a cool track they are creating.

And I don't feel that I need to always be playing with my kids. I can't color and build train tracks all day long. Of course the bills have to get done, the dinner has to be made, the floors have to be swept...and I am doing a disservice to my kids if they feel that everything revolves (or stops) around them all the time.

But it all boils down to this:

When I am playing with my kids, there I am. All of me.

And when I'm paying those bills (or ___________), there I am. All of me.

My kids and my bills will benefit. And so will I.

Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16

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