The Rat Race

I get so caught up in trying to do "do it all" that sometimes I forget to stop and smell the roses. My girls are off of school all week this week for Thanksgiving Break. It was so easy on Monday to let them turn on the TV and do whatever they wanted while I tried to catch up on laundry, tidy their rooms, unload the dishwasher etc....while taking care of my 3 month old at the same time. In the afternoon, after getting her TV fix, my 4 year old daughter came up to me and said "mommy I just want to snuggle with YOU". Stop me in my tracks! All of the other stuff will be there...the dirty dishes, the dirty laundry and everything will be there tomorrow, next week, next year....but my 4 year old won't always be 4 . I decided to STOP what I was doing and snuggle with my daughter on the couch and read books...BOY OH BOY was it hard! hard to not go thru the mail that was on the counter, hard not to run to the dryer when the buzzer went off (my gosh, the clothes will be wrinkled), hard not to load that dishwasher....but WELL worth it! I think that I had forgotten that my kids enjoy spending time with me, reading books, playing games and just hanging out together. We have been baking for the last 2 nights as well (per their request) :Pretzel Bark, Quick and Easy Banana Bread and their own concoction of Grandparents Day snack MIX which is absolutely delicious! (I will post the recipes on Foodie Friday) My girls and I are enjoying ourselves this week and I now realize that they don't care about how the house looks or how cluttered the counters are, they care about spending quality time with ME!

How hard is it for you to ignore the day to day chaos and spend times with your kids?
Do you have specific days that you do housework so that you have time planned with your family?