The balancing act

Once Monday hits, Its go go go... I really don't like always saying to my kids hurry hurry hurry! I feel that they are only young once and they should be able to smell the roses... there is plenty of time later in life to rush from one thing to the next. I try really hard when the work week hits (weekends too, but its easier to slow down them) to not say, "we have to hurry, or hurry up, or we'll be late.) even though my mind is thinking it over and over. As a working parent I hope others will agree that's its not good to always be rushing the kids around. How do you know when enough running around is enough? We are always a family that is moving and shaking, but that's the way I was brought up! On the move! So I think of finding the balance between work, and play is sometimes hard to do. It all seems to mesh into one big groundhogs day! What are some good ways you balance life? One thing I do often, is I remind myself of how old my children really are. We've been on this earth for 20, 30, 40 plus years. They have been here 1, 2 or 3 (or more) It's substantially different. So reminding myself that the simplest thing could be absolutely amazing to them. The best example I can think of is my 1 year old the other day on our walk, was memorized by two boys playing basketball. He just couldn't get enough! I looked at him and his face was amazing... taking in them bouncing the ball, passing, shooting. It was the first time he had ever saw that up close, and he wanted to just stay there to watch and observe. It was the most humbling thing to me, realizing the simple pleasure with just watching two little boys playing basketball. We have children and expect to teach them about life, but sometimes they teach us more than we would expect!