Just BE!

Monday, Zack had the day off from school. Nathan didn't, so I asked Zack if he would like to have breakfast with me. He was THRILLED! So we dropped off Nathan and headed to our local bagel shop.
We grabbed a table, and waited for our food. Immediately, he asked to play a game on my phone. I looked at him and said "seriously? No way! Let's just sit here and enjoy each other's company and talk." He didn't give me a hard time at all, and we started talking about stuff.
As I get up to get our food, I notice a mom and maybe kindergarten age daughter sitting at the table next to us. The little girl was eating her bagel, and the mom? Well, she was tap-tap-tapping away on her phone. She didn't look at her daughter, didn't say one word to her the whole time they were there. That little girl didn't say a word either, just sat there quietly, eating her bagel.

COME ON!!!

I wanted to shake this mom. Is a game, text or whatever you are doing SO IMPORTANT that you would waste this little time you have with your daughter? I felt so terrible for that little girl. And don't tell me that there had to be a reason she was so engrossed in that phone. Nothing is more important than one on one time with your child. Every time I get to have that time (and with four its not easy) I cherish it.


Are we so addicted that we cannot, even for 30 minutes put it down and enjoy who is actually there with us? That we feel we have to plan every second of every day into the future? That we have to fill up our time down to the last second? I think this is a serious problem. We have become so addicted that it's sort of like an induced attention deficit. When we don't have that shiny thing in our hands we feel like we're forgetting something, or we don't know what to do with that brain in our heads. Whoa, think? You mean I actually have to think and use this thing in my head? I actually have to know how to talk to people and not this Siri pretend person?

What do you think that little girl will remember when she thinks of breakfast with her mom? Maybe she won't remember at all!

As for Zack, he thanked me for taking him. When I dropped him off at a friend's house for the afternoon, he didn't want me to leave. I asked him why, and he explained that he enjoyed our time together so much and didn't want it to end. I KNOW he will remember this morning. And his memory will not be of me on the phone.

PLEASE! Put the phones away. Actually communicate with who you are with. Stop running in circles and just......BE.

Are there voices in my head? Maybe I'm just tired.

I love to bake. Cake pops in lovely designs, cupcakes,cakes and now I am delving into the adventure of homemade ice cream. So when Amelia asked if she could have a little early birthday swim party with her girlfriends, I immediately pictured cake pops. Cake pops in the shape of beach balls! Wow, how cute would that be? Then, I could crush up graham crackers so they would be sitting in the sand. Sounds great, right?
Well, lately I've been having some "issues" with things that aren't turning out the way they used to, or should. My ice cream hasn't been freezing, and the cake pops which I decided to do the night before (thank God) stuck to the cake plate so bad that when I tried to pick it up the stick came out. Forget serving this stupid non-beach ball mess to these girls. So it's 10:30 pm and I am standing in my kitchen deciding what to do. Literally, I was singing the Yo Gabba Gabba song to myself "Don't give up, never give up, keep trying" whoa Nelly, DJ Lance is not a voice you want playing in a loop in your head before you fall asleep." Wait a minute, wait a second" (please someone get these annoying voices out of my head! That one happens to be Fred)I just got that cool book from the library two days ago! The one with all the great techniques for making great cakes, the one that will make your kids love you and friends wonder just hoooow you do it. I look at the clock. 10:45! I'm tired. I start to argue with myself. Let me just start a cake from scratch. No! Go to bed! But what? A STORE BOUGHT CAKE?? Oh, the horror! "No!!" (Darth Vader here). I decide that the voices telling me to go to bed are going to win, there will be a store bought cake, and it's ok, she'll love me anyway.