Spontaneity

        Spontaneity is often forgotten about when one becomes a mom. It is hard to be spontaneous when you have three children and they need snacks, diapers, extra clothes, etc. before walking out the door. I was perfectly fine with that arrangement because I thrive when I have every detail planned out. I feel uneasy when there are details that haven’t been attended to. Now that my kids are older and more self sufficient there is no reason not to pick up and go. I have found out recently that being spontaneous can be a lot of fun and is far less stressful than obsessing over every detail. 

This past Saturday was a perfect example of how living in the moment can fill your heart with such joy. As I was eating breakfast and checking out what was happening on Facebook there was a post from my favorite photographer about a free photo shoot in the park later that morning. Without much thought I yelled to the kids to get ready as we were going to have pictures taken in the snow at the park.. I quickly texted my sister in law about the opportunity in case she wanted to get pictures of her girls. I knew I had to be strategic in getting everyone ready in less than two hours especially since my husband was still outside clearing seven inches of wet, heavy snow from the night before. Somehow in a matter of an hour and forty-five minutes everyone was photo ready. Yes, there was some chaos in getting everyone ready, finding gloves that matched (since my kids could only find the gloves without mates that morning), and finding the kids coats that weren’t filthy from many days of playing outside at recess. Now, anyone who truly knows me will tell you that this is out of character for me as I like to make sure that before pictures are taken all outfits are clean and ready to go, hair has been perfectly styled, and everyone is coordinated.

The fun started as soon as we arrived at the park. Visions of my nieces playing in the snow with their parents came into sight as we approached. The fun started as soon as we got out of our car.  Our kids quickly jumped into the snowball fight going on. My husband and his sister were throwing snowballs at each other and at one point I heard him tell her they haven’t done that since they were in junior high. On the surface it was just a snowball fight but in reality it was a really sweet moment between these two. They are not the type of hug each other or even say I love you. Those things are understood in the actions they take.  I even took part in the snowball fight even though snow is my nemesis. We got some pictures of the kids and were lucky to get a group shot of all of us together. We continued to play outside in the snow well after the photos were done being taken. After we returned from home my heart was filled with so much love and this was truly the highlight of the weekend. 

        I am blessed for those people and opportunities which give you a push to savor the little things in life rather than losing sight in the details. Details are important but spending too much time wrapped up in these causes me to lose sight of what is important. Sometimes I have these grand plans of things I want to do with the family and almost always something doesn’t go as planned and someone ends up disappointed. Going forward I am making a point to do things without a plan as those are the situations that the kids talk about and will probably remember the most.  I think this will help us enjoy the journey as much as the destination. We sure do laugh about the two times we had to evacuate a hotel in the middle of the night after the fire alarm went off.