Lately, things have been slipping. Housework, uni work, quality time with the kiddos, with my husband. The semester at uni started and it always takes me a while to get into the new groove of things. Then my beautiful 93 year old Grandmother passed away and we flew overseas for the funeral quite unexpectedly. Come home and we’re all sick and it takes us 3 weeks to shake it. Add to all of that a miscarriage and some medical tests for me and it’s been a rollercoaster 2011 already!

Jade’s post about spending too much time online really really hit home. I was using my computer as a crutch and a way to escape all of that. Everything was falling apart because I wasn’t here for my family, I was online wasting time trying to drown out my thoughts.
I really appreciate your honesty and your openness Jade. Thank you for waking me up and sharing what you learnt from your break.

So, I’m getting back to basics and being present in the moment with my family. That’s what life is all about, after all. How many times have we sat down to play with our children but we’re not really playing? We’re thinking about dinner, washing, bills and how I wish we could have a holiday?
We’re thinking about work and facebook, deadlines, housework and grocery shopping.
Stop.
Take a deep breath and take it all in. We can’t redo today, so make the most of it.
Really get down and play. Hug your kiddos for a little longer.

Slow down. Wake up. This is life.

I had to tell myself all of that. And I knew, after the wake up call, that I needed to do something about it. Because this is it. This is their childhood. This is my dream. This is all I ever wanted, and I’m wasting time checking facebook every half hour and browsing website after website for nothing in particular.

Well, I’ve rambled enough I think! On to something my little guy and I did to really spend some time together…

Grab a large roll of paper {this is the Ikea one, usually attached to our easel!}

Just roll it out on the floor where you have plenty of space to play around it.

Draw your scene on it. 

Here we have roads, a lake, a forest, a school and of course some houses.

Noah of course told me who’s house is who’s and where it needs to be on the ‘map’ and why. I love this, and it shows me he really pays attention and is very observant!

This also shows me my drawing skills are not that great! But it doesn’t matter.

Let your child play :o} Play with your child. Let them draw and add to it. After this Noah scribbled all over my forest {it was raining apparently} and he added an airport.

Such a simple thing to do yet so rewarding.