Wasted Time

As I was standing outside this evening, watching my dear husband running around behind Matthew's bike, his hands on either side of his abdomen, sometimes righting his balance, sometimes helping to propel him forward and keep him moving, a thought entered my mind. "I should go inside instead of wasting time out here. What a wasted evening." You see, we were outside waiting for someone to come look at a desk we are trying to give away. They came, they saw, they left empty handed. And now we were spending a few more minutes helping the kids ride their bikes and scooters. Matthew wasn't going to master his two-wheeler tonight. I wouldn't be missing anything and I had so much laundry to fold, or I could log into work. I have 18 more hours to do for the week and only 4 days left to do it. As soon as I completed that thought process, though, all the small groups from the past 3 years came back to me. This time is precious - this time with my family, making them a priority. No time spent in this manner is ever "wasted" time. So, I leaned back on my husband's car and watched him get an aching back bending over Matthew. I encouraged Adam to ride faster and turn tighter. I listened to Anna ring her "very favorite" bike bell. I put all of my to do's out of my mind for just a minute to focus on what really matters. Too bad they're all in bed, now I have no choice but to log into work.