words of inspiration

I'm sitting at my computer going through a few of my old emails trying to clean out my inbox (it's so full!). I came accross an old email from my mother-in-law. This particular writing of hers really triggered me at this point in my life. Alyssa, who is 3 now, is at the stage of needing constant attention from ME and there have been so many times when I have wished that I could send her away (to grandma's or school or something) so that I could get some things done around the house (including checking my email and doing stuff on the computer). One of my biggest complaints and pet peaves is having to stop what I'm doing when I'm "almost done". I hate not completing a task before I get up to do another because it seems as though I never get back to the original task I was working on. Plus, if I do get back to it, it takes me twice as long since I have to go through it all to remember what it is I had already done. So I think Alyssa hears these two phrases more than any others in her life... "in a minute" and "I'm almost done". She thinks that saying "please mommy" over and over and over and over and over and over again will help me get it done faster, but I just keep saying the same thing back to her. I'm sure she gets just as frustrated with me as I do with her in those moments. I think I have come to realize that although stopping what I'm doing at the moment to do something for her might take extra time, it is probably faster than the alternative. I mean really, who can work with a little girl chasing them around, or pulling on their arm saying, "please mommy. please mommy. MOMMY PLEASE!!! Please get me a sippy! PLEASE! MOMMY PLEASE!!!!"

So anyway, as I was reading this email, she had a poem in there that Cory (her oldest, my husband's oldest sibbling) had written when he was 13. I thought it was so cute, and so relative to my life right now so I had to put it in my blog. I have a few other things that I want to post as well, but I think I will do a different post for those. Anyway, here it is.

What words of inspiration from a 13 year old boy. It is so true though... small things only take a minute, yet so much can come from them. I really need to be better at taking a minute for my kids... especially while they are young.

What a little thing a minute is, yet what magic it doth hold

It's only made of seconds, but it worth much more than gold.

For it only takes a minute to stop and shut the door,

And it only takes a minute to pick the toys up off the floor,

It only takes a minute to replace worn laces in a shoe

And it only takes a minute to pause and say, "I love you."

So if we'll learn to cherish each minute and use each new one found,

In the end we'll stand before the Lord and wear the victor's crown.