beauty in the day

I don't know who this post is for or why I feel the need to write it. It's more than anything for myself now and my future self. Tonight I have felt compelled to write about my day. It was nothing fantastic or out of the ordinary but that's also what made it so beautiful. It was kind of a perfectly balanced day. There were the usual stresses that come with the territory of raising a small child but there were the simple pleasures as well. Our day started a bit rough. There was crying and screaming (by the 2 year old not me) before breakfast even started. However, that was also a learning moment. A learning moment for each of us. I explained she couldn't behave that way and gave her an alternative way to express what she wanted to me. This helped us both and we moved on. At 9 two of our friends came over while their mom went to an appointment. Two other friends joined us for play time as well. It went as smoothly as can go with a house full of 4 children all under 4 needing to share, behave, play nice. We had fun though with very minimal crying all around. E and I then went and got lunch at Subway and brought it to the park. There was no one else there and we had each other's full attention. We sat and talked. We talked about silly things, about funny dreams, about Barney, about why the doodlebops weren't at the park with us even though E really would like them to be, about why Tinker Bell doesn't live in our backyard and where it is she does possibly live in comparison to our back yard, about the school across the street and the kids playing outside, about school and she told me she really hopes the kids in Grandma Darlene's class are nice to her and have good manners because that's what she will do when she goes to school, about the night before when her and a girl hit heads at the park and instead of saying sorry and moving on E cried because she felt bad; we discussed what the right thing to do in this situation would be so now she knows if something like that happens again. This was the best part of the day. Just the two of us hanging out talking about life. I think that truly talking and truly listening is such a lost art these days. I didn't once pick up my phone to look at it, the tv wasn't on in the background, it was just us in the shade at our tiny picnic table. This is not a moment we have every day but it should be.

The rest of the day was just as usual as most. Played at home, made supper, hung out with Cole for a bit, gave E a bath while we skyped with grandma Darlene, read both grandma Darlene and grandma Rita Ann a bed time story (Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM because E has it pretty much memorized), said our prayers and E went to bed. Leaving me with time to talk to LeeAnn and then watch Supernatural with Cole. I think it was when I was telling LeeAnn part of E and I's conversation at the park and I got a bit teary eyed that I realized how precious that moment really truly was. I guess I just felt compelled to record the memory to read it again someday maybe when E is moving off to college or maybe when she is about to get married or when she has a little girl of her own.

These are also the days that I can appreciate God's plan. I think about had we already had another baby this exact day wouldn't have happened. Yes, I will have days like this with both E and the second child but this day was just as it should be, it was perfect.