Recently I made a trip with my four children to my childhood home in Phoenix, AZ. I relived many memories of my life on this trip\u2014driving past my childhood home, visiting my 19 year-old-daughter at my alma mater Grand Canyon University, spending hours in our dear friend\u2019s backyard pool with kids splashing (and 6 year old Annie learning to swim on this trip), eating at my old favorite restaurants, visiting the church that Greg and I were married in 21 years ago, and having lunch with my college roommates. I embraced each season that was represented and shared it with my own children. However, there was something that prominently stood out to me\u2014the impact my mom had on each of these seasons.<\/p>\n
You see, my mom passed away almost seven years ago. What an enormous loss that was for our family. My mom was the cornerstone, the \u201crock\u201d of our family. My mom was a strong, resourceful woman who impacted many\u2014but especially me. As I relived each of these experiences on this trip, I realized that my mom was not only resourceful in life, but in her relationships. She used the simple daily moments to invest in me and others.<\/p>\n
I began pondering this question \u201cWhat am I teaching my kids in those ordinary moments?\u201d I am confident that you and I share something in common as moms\u2014feeling stretched and sometimes even overwhelmed in our daily duties both inside and outside of the home. We share the mundane minutes of life. Don\u2019t stop reading here. This isn\u2019t a moment to add one more thing <\/i>to do in the day. I\u2019m like you I\u2019m right there with you you\u2014balancing many different \u201cplates\u201d and longing to be the best mom I can be. But think for a minute about how many mundane minutes each day holds that could be\u2026 repurposed. Those minutes could be used intentionally to impact your relationships with your children, and the rest of your significant relationships. It\u2019s not about having yet another thing to check off on the list, but simply keeping in mind that we can also be resourceful, much like my mom was, with our time to impact those we love.<\/p>\n
We have 1440 minutes in each day. Here are some thoughts on different minutes during the day and ways to repurpose them.<\/p>\n
While you\u2019re making breakfast, you can start your day off by sharing a compliment or encouraging word. You can show a little affection\u2014hugs cause a surge of the \u201cfeel good\u201d hormone better known as oxytocin. This can set a positive tone for the day ahead.<\/p>\n
If you have children or a husband leaving the house to school or work, use this time away to build your relationship. I like to put a note in my kids\u2019 lunchboxes\u2014often on the napkin. They tell me it\u2019s \u201ccorny,\u201d but I know that they are getting the message that their mom loves them and is thinking of them. Text your spouse encouraging words while he\u2019s gone to let him know you\u2019re thinking of him. This let\u2019s loved ones know that they\u2019re on your mind and that they matter to you.<\/p>\n
As your kids arrive home from school or daycare or your spouse returns home from work, take time to notice and reconnect. Let your actions speak loudly to communicate that you are thrilled they are walking in your front door.<\/p>\n
Use bedtime to connect. Say a bedtime prayer with your child or spouse and thank them for something specific from the day. It can be as simple as \u201cThank you for listening to Mommy when I asked you to clean up your toys.\u201d These are the last words they will hear from you as they drift off to sleep.<\/p>\n
As you live your days out with your children and loved ones \u2013 the laundry, dishes, and driving to dance lessons \u2013 let those be heartfelt moments.<\/p>\n
Hello, Darling, welcome to the moments of everyday motherhood.<\/p>\n
Erin Smalley is the mom to three girls, ages 6, 16, and 19, and one son, age 12. Originally, Erin was a labor and delivery nurse and then returned to school to earn a Master\u2019s in Clinical Psychology. Although Erin thought she had sent her last child off to kindergarten, she and her husband, Greg, were blessed with their youngest child through the gift of adoption (something Erin dreamed of doing her whole life after being an adopted child herself). She works very part-time at Focus on the Family in the Marriage and Family Division, while attempting to balance life at home with four kids. She has co-authored three books, her favorite being <\/em>Grown-Up Girlfriends\u2014Real Friends in the Real World. When she isn\u2019t in the car distributing children to activities, she can be found writing, running or tackling the laundry and dinner. You can reach Erin at www.smalleymarriage.com<\/a> or erin.smalley@fotf.org<\/a> .<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently I made a trip with my four children to my childhood home in Phoenix, AZ. I relived many memories of my life on this trip\u2014driving past my childhood home, visiting my 19 year-old-daughter at my alma mater Grand Canyon University, spending hours in our dear friend\u2019s backyard pool with kids splashing (and 6 year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":13043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,102],"tags":[166,101,36],"class_list":["post-1123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-relationships","tag-erin","tag-parenting","tag-relationships"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}