I've been thinking.

Yes, I have been thinking. period. I was brought to the attention of this young mother's story and blog. When I read through it, I was filled with sadness for her, but also inspired by how she embraces and captures small moments of life, love and motherhood. I hope and pray that she and her husband will recover. Pondering her story has really made me want to enjoy all of the little moments in life more. I am a total task girl. I like to get things done. That is good most of the time, but I think that sometimes I let life get away from me. I am sure that precious moments happen everyday, but a lot of times I don't take the time to notice. Well, I am done with not noticing. She quotes Elder Ballard in her blog:

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

The day after I had pondered all this, I had one of those moments. I brought Ry into our bed to feed him. After he was done, he played around a little bit and then all of the sudden, he flopped down, put his arm around my neck, cuddled into my chest and fell back to sleep for about 5 minutes. I wanted those minutes to last forever. I just loved holding him close because I know that the times I have to do that will come to an end before I know it. The new, "live in the moment" part of me had to battle with the"task" part of me not to just get up. I am so glad I didn't. So, I hope you don't mind as I indulge myself at times by sharing life's little moments. It is not completely in my nature to do this, but I want to try. I know that as I start thinking more about these moments to "blog" about them, it will become more natural for me to enjoy them. So, my prayers go out the the Neilsons and I thank her for helping me to think about things. Period.