record

As part of the 10 Days of Intentional Parenting, today is a day to record, and to rest.
So I will keep this brief.
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We spent the week focusing on our parenting,
being more deliberate with our children, more careful with our time.
It was amazing.

Day One: Awake
Day Two: Heart
Day Three: See
Day Four: Listen
Day Five: Record

I will recap the whole week, not separating out the specific days.  This picture of Jack is from when we traced our hands and wrote what we love doing with each other on them.  I have it hanging on my wall to remind me that the boys love to just spend time with me. They are not particular about what we're doing (throwing snowballs, reading, playing Legos) and it's good for me to keep in mind how ten minutes can bring them such joy.

LOGAN:

One really fun part of the week was having the boys take pictures of things they wanted to remember or capture.  Logan wanted to capture his robot;

Bullseye;

the diggers outside;

and his "cage".

JACK:

Jack wanted to take a picture of my new rainboots, "Cause they're so cute, mom."

As well as Flora's four-wheeler;

and Mount Pilcher in the snow.

Jack also wanted to take a picture of me.  In my workout clothes.  The boys are fascinated with my "exter-size" and think it's funny when I do my workouts while they are awake. Logan will sometimes even join in.

WYATT:

I helped Wyatt a bit with his photo selection. It was really fun for me to try and look at our life from his perspective.  Naturally, a good day includes a whole pile of binkies;

 And his view from the crib;

 As well as his favorite place to be: my arms.

 And a photographic account of his day just wouldn't be complete without including his favorite part of the day- when his brothers wake up from naps & come downstairs.

 He coos, and they coo, and it's just the sweetest time.  All three boys loving each other, happy (at least for a moment) to be awake and reunited in the living room. I love it.

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"Instead of letting life pass by in the hurried blur that society pushes it at I instead became diligent about slowing myself down enough so that I could be awake and my heart would be aware, and I would see the world, and then listen to my children. And in all of that I began to create a very profound and beautiful record of life." -Rachel @ Finding Joy

So this week, I slowed down. 

There were still moments that were harried. 

Moments when I was grouchy or the boys didn't receive my full attention. 

But I kept bringing it back. 

I took time to capture moments on film, and enjoy them in real time.

I laid on the floor to see our world from Wyatt's view.

I allowed the twins to use the camera, loving the things they chose to take pictures of.

The things they wanted to remember.

I held this guy just a little closer and a little longer before laying him down at nap time each day. 

Just being told "this time is fleeting" upped my diligence to savor it.

I took pictures of our "front yard" as the landscape has changed. 

With the warmer weather the melting has commenced. 

The whole village looks different.

I also took pictures around the house, like the boys' train table covered in Legos. 

Building garages with our new Legos was our favorite past time this week.

And I played more with the boys. 

Doing whatever they were doing. 

Reading stories, flying airplanes or coloring in colorbooks.

I even made this beautiful picture for my own mom,

which I will send off this afternoon when we head to the post office.

 I got more real.  Real with how our life looks (messy most days, but also fun) and real with my expectations of myself.  I put WAY too much on my daily to-do list. 
This leaves me with:
A. No time for the children and
B. A useless feeling at the end of the day. 
I have resolved to be realistic with how much I can get done, and to let go of what I can in order to make memories with these boys whose childhood is so fleeting.

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The challenge will resume next week with days 5-10, but on the blog Finding Joy you can get the pages & instructions from the first five days and join the fun.