Today's date was highlighted with a big colored tab reading "Nate's baptism". An important day. A special day: a major event, friends coming from out-of-state, guests spending the night. This is the sort of day that I tend to plan badly. I rush too much. I clean too much (and still feel like I should have cleaned more). I listen to the on-going dialogue in my head ranging from list-making to reminders that I don't want to be the sort of mother who barks orders at her children (oblivious to brightly-colored tabs on calendars) who wake up wondering when they enlisted in the Marines.
Today, amidst the bad planning and life-changing events, Audrey and I had a crafty twenty minutes. I told myself that the shower could wait and that our friends loved us more than freshly-vacuumed stairs. Then, I pulled out my ceramic mug of random buttons, a hot glue gun, a spool of pink grosgrain ribbon, and some metal hair clips. Audrey rummaged through the buttons lining them up as I glued the ribbon to the metal clips. To my surprise, when I asked what buttons were her favorites, she pulled out a collection of white ones. I dotted the ribbon with glue and Audrey handed me the buttons as she wanted them ordered on the clips. We discussed shapes and colors and tried out her new accessories. Then I made a mad dash to the shower and changed Audrey into a dress for the evening's festivities. Audrey has been a trooper since Nathan arrived, doting on him, increasing her patience, even asking, "Now that he's not on your lap, can I be on your lap?" Those twenty minute projects, so hard to fit in right now (especially on days like this), seem that much more important to fit in (especially on days like this). After all, we know that today's events changed Nathan's life forever, but you never know, those twenty minutes might have just changed hers.
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