There I was, about a week ago, sitting at my desk at work, while my family ironically spent Family Day together, without me. In my town, Family Day is a statutory holiday that everyone in my province gets off, except for federal government employees… and I live in the Capital… where the largest employer is the federal government. Granted, it was my choice to not take the day off, but still. Receiving adorable pictures of my daughter and texts about how much fun the kids were having wasn’t helping my concentration. I managed to finish my day and headed straight home.
I’m one of those lucky people that’s really close to their family. My mom, sisters and I all live within about 30 minutes of each other and we see each other all the time. Naturally, my mother jumped at the request to spend the day with my daughter when I asked her about it. She loves nothing more than to spend time with her grandkids. It’s always a bit of a race between my sisters and I to see who will be first to ask my mom to watch the kids. I won this time… except I think the joke was on me.
So that day, I get home, and the most wonderful thing happened.
I realized I didn’t have to go pick up my daughter at daycare (Yes! Saved 30 minutes!). And I didn’t have to spend 5 minutes in front of the open fridge door wondering what the heck I was going to feed my child.
My mother was already working on making dinner. It even had wholesome food choices in it!
I had time to fold some laundry AND put it away (imagine that!). I had time to hug my happy, face painted child. And we actually sat down at the kitchen table and ate dinner like normal people.
AND we did the dishes together so I wouldn’t have to get up extra early the next morning and dig my way through the mountain of dirty dishes to find enough counter space so I could make the lunches.
Happiness is taking time to savour these moments as they happen.
What happened that night may seem so simple to some people. Most of us take it for granted. Especially if we have a partner who regularly does that half of the work. As a single mom, I’m blessed with the opportunity to appreciate these tiny moments because they don’t happen very often. I forget sometimes, how much work it is to do everything myself. It’s just such a normal part of my life that I don’t even realize how tired I am until moments like these happen, and I catch myself breathing a sigh of relief.
So when this happens, I try to make sure to savour it as much as possible, and say “Thank You”. It’s probably a tiny thing from my mom’s perspective, to make dinner, but to me, it’s everything.
Merci Maman, pour ton aide. Il n’y a pas de mots pour décrire à quel point j’apprécie tes petites actions dans ces moments.