Hey dad look at this.

Sharing myself with the girls in a way that I would like to share with someone.

Parents know how thier kids like to show off the little accomplishments they make each day. As busy as our days are it is hard sometimes to find the time to stop what I'm doing and take the time to let the girls show me how proud they are of what they have created or learned. At times I am so focused on trying to get my chores done that I lose my patience. I so want to get my "stuff" done, that I don't want to stop and give those few moments of my time away.

I realize how important it is for them to share with me, but I hadn't thought about how much that particular daily event was shared between Cindy and I. When one of us was busy doing something the kids could always go look for the other to share with. Now they are stuck trying to find little slices of my time which are much harder to come by than before.

These are the "little" things that fill up our days, that explain why I am still trying to figure out why I have so little time to do anything. As I realize what all these "little" things are, I can start to try and organize my time to use those few times when I find myself sitting on the couch for a minute watching some TV show, and instead take that time to prompt the girls to show me thier days accomplishments. It sounds like I am trying to squeeze every last minute out of every day, and I am. Trying my best to be a double parent means that I don't have the luxury of that much extra time.

The time I spend writing like this is time I am spending for myself. I get to "rest" for a minute (although I just had to stop my previous writing to listen to Chelsey's newest flute playing accomplishments which prompted this story) and analyze my thoughts for a moment.

People keep telling me I need to make time for myself. I think I've figured that out. I will "make" some time appear between Sunday and Monday and spend all of that day on myself :) It is impossible to "make" time. There are only those few hours each day when I'm not working that I can try to "use" along with the weekends which get used up doing all those little chores that I don't have time for during the week, yard work, house work, shopping, errands etc.

Back to the theme of this story for a moment and I realize that there is a therapy to sharing our daily accomplishements and experiences. The girls need to tell me about the things they saw and did each day. For them there are so many new things that they experience that they need to talk about and understand. Each day is a chance for so many little things to share.

As we get older we still have just as many experiences although many of them are no longer are happening for the first time.

As time goes on I am realizing more and more the "little" things that I have lost. I don't have someone to come home to and share the experiences of my day. And I realize now that for me many of these daily experiences are happening for the first time. So many things that I am doing for the first time alone, without Cindy, and I don't have someone to come home and share that with.

"Honey I'm Home", "Hi dear, how was your day?"