Perfect Moment Monday: Pre-Dinner Chaos
It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: zen–and all things associated with calm, mindfulness take on an entirely different meaning with little kids around. As in zen moments only happen while the kids are at preschool.
Of course, Lori of Lavender Luz knows that; she’s a mom herself. Which is why I love her Perfect Moment Mondays. Lori says they are
about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.
Perfect moments in my family … emphasis on “moment.” Transpiring for seconds or less, when screaming/jumping/shouting ooowwwie!! and other assorted chaos inevitably ensues.
While preparing dinner, I enlist my husband to cut watermelon. He does it much faster than I, keeping pace with my daughter’s demands. She inhales the stuff. She’s obsessed with watermelon, eating it morning, noon and night. However, all seeds must be removed, even the white ones. Seed removal is in fact my steady non-paying summer job.
My perfect moment includes several activities at once:
My son: Sets the keyboard on automatic play. There are hundreds of songs to pick, and he chooses an annoying a rousing polka. Yes, polka. The song is approximately forty-seven seconds long, but set on repeat–it just bounces along endlessly. M performs various karate-inspired dance moves, moving furniture, pounding his heavy body into the floor. Overall, he is loud.
My daughter: Simultaneously rollerblading around the house (at least she cleans off the wheels when she comes home) and talking to my husband, about god knows-what. Non-stop. In Serbian. Emphatically. And loudly. Also, eating watermelon.
Me: Baking pork chops, making my semi-famous blue cheese gourmet salad, preparing vegetables for the broiler, making corn-on-the-cob. Setting the table, sneaking in a sip of Syrah here and there, cleaning rogue watermelon seeds, supplying husband with extra trash bags, extra bowls for cut watermelon. Also: discussing with M the merits of ninja dancing verses Spiderman gymnastics. In my son’s world, both exist. Obviously.
My husband: cutting watermelon.
Dinner makes it on the table. The kids actually sit nicely, feeding themselves. We have nice conversation, with only passing mention of poop, pee and throwing up.
But the dinner wasn’t the perfect moment. The Perfect Moment was the pre-dinner chaos preparation.
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Next week, I’ll be switching to a summer blog posting schedule–Monday and Thursday … please be sure to sign up in the right-hand column to receive the latest post directly into your inbox!
Love this! A good reminder to cherish the mundane and take the time to appreciate it.
You had me at Syrah
We both had perfect moments around roller blades!
I love the scene you describe here <3 < 3 <3
Those chaotic moments can be so blissful, standing in the midst of so much life happening around you. I'm glad you saw the beauty in it.
I *love* this … and I'm with Lori, good thing you had the Syrah! But really, the rollerblading watermelon-eating chaos seems like a dance, the way you describe it.
This is such a good reminder, Laura. We really need to pay more attention to those moments and just feel them as they come instead of obsessing over creating them. They are there and most often than not, at least in our family, they come when I least expect them. One thing is sure though. When they are present, it's impossible to miss them! P.S. That watermelon looks really sweet!!! :-))
Yes! I realize now once I was looking for this perfect moment–so I could participate in the blog hop, well, suddenly — instead of seeing noice and chaos, I saw something really cool …
Sweet post. Always good to take time and smell the flowers – make a perfect moment part of any day
That does sound pretty perfect! AND you had a conversation, I'm impressed!