My challenge for the month of March is going just okay.  Not great.  Not bad.  Just okay.  I think I imagined more.  I imagined fun play dates each week with each kid.  I imagined ice cream cones and skipping down the street and lots of snuggles and times of doing nothing.

 

Truth is that life doesn't really roll that way.  At least not in our house.  I'm honestly having the hardest time being alone with my children outside of our home.  Does anyone have this mastered?

 

I have taken a few trips to the grocery store and instead of asking Aaron to watch all the kids so I could be alone in the grocery store (because we know sometimes that is pure bliss) I have taken one kid along with me.  That counts as alone time, but to me it isn't the FUN ALONE TIME I was envisioning.

 

I am thinking about this a lot, and striving to be intentional with them, but some days life takes over and I realize I never was alone with any of them.  There are always 2 or 3 kids around me.

 

Am I alone here?

 

How do you do it?

 

Tonight I was tucking Deacon in and I asked him what his favorite thing to do with mom was.  After what seemed like hours of silence where he was thinking and I was surely convinced he could think of nothing that I ever do fun with him, and I was the worst mom ever, and am ruining him for life, he smiled and said he liked the duck place where we get brownies.

I thought for a while and realized he was talking about Quack's, which is a local bakery that we have shopped at before.  I asked him if he wanted to go there this week with just him and I and he got the biggest smile on his face.  I told him he could get a brownie and I would get a coffee and we could just talk.

He leaned down and gave me a huge hug.  It made my day just knowing that he was excited about him and I heading out for a date.

 

This week at Central Market I pulled Amos aside for a moment and had some snuggles.  He is a very affectionate kid, but can sometimes get embarrassed by my affections in public.  Any attention kinda embarrasses him.  🙂

 

I'm still yearning to be intentional with my kids.  Aaron has taken some time off and we've had lots of family time, and so that has been so helpful, but I still haven't mastered a system for me being alone with each kid every week.  Story & I have it mastered because 3 days a week it's just her and I!  We get lots of alone time.

How has your one-on-one time been this month with your kids?  Have any great advice for me?

Jamie Ivey