I am not looking forward to sending my boys back to school this fall.
It wasn't till last week though that I realized I haven't even been making the most of the time I do have with them.
The time right now.
I'm with them all day every day, but the amount of time I spend actually doing anything with them is pretty small. Eric is so good at setting aside time specifically for them. Me, not so much.
Emmett's nap time comes around, and with it my chance to get some computer work done, and I hear myself shooing this boy or that away so I can "get stuff done" while Emmett is sleeping.
And I decided to change that, while I still have them home over nap time. Why would I wish for more time with my boys and then push them away when I have a chance for some one-on-two time with them?
If you want to make a change, just tell your kids. They'll keep you accountable.
That first day that I told Alec and Sebastian that the first fifteen or twenty minutes of Emmett's nap were theirs to do whatever they wanted with me, their eyes just shone. I came out from putting Emmett to bed, and before I could even shut the door, there they were, with a whole list of things to do.
We jumped on the trampoline. I pushed them on the swings. We went down to the old station. We picked some flowers. We looked at the "sweet pea garden." We picked some dusty blackberries.
Unhurried time, just me and them.
They remind me of it every day now when I go to put Emmett to bed. "Don't forget to do something special with us."
Some days we spend less time than others. One day it was just a few minutes. Another day it was the entirety of Emmett's nap and then some.
Last Saturday, we did a lemonade stand out by the road, and while it wasn't very frequented, it was a good experience for all of us. 
The boys got some good waiting practice in. I got some sunshine. We just hung out together, drinking our own lemonade, waving the umbrella at whoever drove by, chatting about who might stop. I showed the boys how to make a semi honk, and one obliged. 
A neighbor man came by and paid way too much for a lemonade and one of Alec's rose cards. Then he came back a short time later with a whole bag of peaches for us, so we gave him another lemonade. A friend from church stopped on her way by, and she, too, overpaid for two lemonades and a card. People are so kind to little boys selling lemonade. 🙂 We saved a cup of lemonade for Eric and another one for my grandma and still ended up with enough left over to take to my parents that evening for supper. 
Barely anyone stopped, but thanks to the generosity of those who did, we made enough money for a small economics lesson. 🙂 I helped the boys divvy up the money . . . card-printing costs, lemonade-making labor, tithe money . . . and then we split the rest evenly between them as spending money.
They were very pleased. So was I.
Maybe I will have to send them away for seven hours a day once school starts, but that doesn't change the amount of time I have with them right now.
Make the most of the time that you have, not the time you wish you could have.
