Balloons and bread

I glanced up at the wall. It was eight o'clock pm. How did it get to be eight already? I had a to-do list a mile long when I realized that more than half of it just wasn't going to get done. The next morning was the first day of school and Lincoln's birthday. I had tried to be prepared for it all, but I'm a procrastinator. It's not one of my finer qualities. At this point, I had to pick and choose what was going to happen and what was not.  Going down my list, I narrowed it down to two things.

Balloons and bread.

Balloons for his room when he woke up. And bread for their lunches. Yes. Those two things were necessities. The rest would have to wait.

The day came and went and it seemed to be a good one for all. School went well. The birthday boy was happy. As I sat down at the end of the day to process it all, I thought about my role as a mom. Days like these help me realize what they really need from me most. Balloons? Sure. Bread? Yes. But most of all they need to feel my love. What they really need is my arms to pull them close and tousle their hair in the morning when they crawl out of bed. Or that extra squeeze hug when they come barreling through the door after school.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to let them all starve or anything. But loving them is tops on my list.