I’ve noticed lately, especially when I’ve got a jam packed day ahead, that when I’m in the midst of doing one thing, I’m always thinking ahead to what is coming up (and usually when and what I have to do to prepare) on the schedule.  In essence, I’m never present.

Today was one of those busy days, with swimming lessons in the morning, a close girlfriend’s half way between 30 & 40 birthday lunch and one of the fabulous ladies from my mums’ group’s 30th birthday party this evening.  The morning started off as it usually does with Miss B waking up early, coming into our bedroom, climbing into bed and us trying to convince her it’s still the middle of the night so she needs to keep sleeping between mummy and daddy.  It rarely works and this morning was no exception… so on go the cartoons which buy us about 20 mins of ‘waking up time’ before we get up and crack on with our day.

After swimming, we ducked into a store which was having a sale to buy a birthday present for the first party before heading home to let Miss A have a nap.  After doing some housework and getting ready for the lunch, I went to wrap the present when I saw that the store had left the security tag on, so I decided to head back down the street and sort it out, and hopefully grab another present for the party in the evening as well as picking up my sunnies with their shiny new lenses (after smashing my sunnies earlier in the week).

By the time I got home and got ready to go we were running late, I was hot (40 degrees here today!) and snappy at the hubby, lamenting why we never seem to have our shite together when we go out (and why he couldn’t have had a shower and a shave whilst I was down the street!).  But we headed off and got into the swing of things once we arrived.  To cut a long and boring story short, I can recall sitting through lunch and the conversations around me thinking about what I needed to do to get ready for the next party later that day as there would be a pool and a water jumping castle for the kids to play in (and therefore I needed get swimming togs, towels, clothes etc etc etc organised in between parties).  Whilst in my own head, a friend came up and told me to come and have a look at what Miss B was up to and I walked inside to see this:

Our lunch was at a little winery where there is often live music playing and today the winery owner jumped on the piano when he saw Miss B and began to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old Macdonald Had a Farm much to her delight.  Then he let her have a go and after I ran to get my camera and take some pictures, I actually found myself thinking that all too often I dismiss these little moments, either racing to get a camera or simply not spending the time to take it all in because I’m too busy thinking about what I’ve got to do down the track.

Unfortunately I can’t seem to upload the video but let me assure you that she was awesome, singing Old Macdonald and snorting like a pig, and hitting those keys like she knew what she was doing… my heart melted.

And it was a nice reminder to stop and savour these moments.  This little girl is growing up so quickly before our very eyes.  She’s stringing full sentences together and is starting to lose much of her old baby ways.  And whilst I’m sure she will still be delighting us with her exploits in the future, it’s easy to assume that it’s going to be like this forever and that you’ll savour that next moment or take the opportunity to stop and listen next time.  Before this happened, I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether or not to go to the next party as both of the girls hadn’t had a sleep and were so tired.  But I decided to go and I’m glad we did.  We had a really great night.  The kids played and got wet in the hot afternoon sun, there was so much water that the back lawn was churned to mud forcing us to all discard our shoes and walk through the slush.  And you know what, we all loved it.

I have no pics to share because I turned off my phone and made a conscious effort to be present.  To take in our girls playing and to enjoy the company of people, both friends and new acquaintances.  We enjoyed fabulous food and stayed way past the girls bedtime and had a really really great night.  And after a nice long shower (which involved a scrubbing brush and lots of soap for my muddy feet and legs), I now get to sit back and reflect upon a great start to the weekend.  With one week to go now until I go back to work, being present in these last few days is something I’m really looking forward to!

Have you had a great start to the weekend? Every find yourself just zipping through life without ever pausing long enough to take it all in?