The Little Things

This summer, one of my greatest challenges has been to spend "quality time" with my children. We have been able to spend plenty of time together but most of my attempts at quality time end up to be frustrating chunks of interupted chaos. I feel exceptionally exhausted and hopelessly grouchy much of the time. But, one day this summer I stood on a large rock on the seashore with James. The waves crashed around us. As we stood on this rock we noticed that it was covered with tiny little living shells. These shells were "stuck" tightly to the rock with little fibers. We pulled a few off. We watched them as the waves rolled in and out over the rock. There were thousands of them. We both thought they were cool and we sat out there watching them and touching them and wondering at them for a while, honestly, I lost track of time. When it was time to go, James grabbed my hand and said, "That was fun, Mom." "It was", I thought to myself. It seems like those words, "that was fun, Mom" and those moments are harder to come by than I would have ever imagined. Thank goodness for those little shells on the rocks at the beach and that moment with James.