Unexpected
Kevin had taken Riley, Bergen, Mosely and Piper with him to the store.
Fox was asleep.
London and I were suddenly alone in our own home.
Just the two of us.
Unexpected.
It was so quiet. And peaceful.
And what I really wanted to do was to steal the time. Steal the time for me. I wanted to finish The Red Pony or write down a few ideas. The bedroom was messy. I could take care of that. Call a friend with no interruptions. (Endless possibilities.)
London asked me, “Can we play a game?”
I looked at that little blond mini-me (sighed mentally inside my head) and reluctantly said, “yes”.
As London picked out Sorry for us to play together I did a quick attitude change and decided to embrace this surprise time alone with my six year old.
When she came back into the kitchen I poured her a beverage.
Chocolate milk.
In a glass cup.
(“Wow, Mommy. We both have grown up cups. We’re big kids.”)
And so we played.
And chatted. And laughed about how hard it was to move our red and green pieces out of the start position. And how funny it was when we drew the “sorry” card.
I won the first game.
And London won the second game.
We drank our cold chocolate milk. (Which we had stored in the freezer during game prep time for maximum grown up coldness.)
By then, the rest of our loud, exuberant family had arrived home.
I was so glad I had chosen London.
So grateful I didn’t clean the bedroom. Or read classic literature. Or write or chat with a friend. (Even though those are good things too.)
Because that time was London’s time.
And my time too.
To drink cold chocolate milk with my daughter while she still likes it. To play a game with a kid who still thinks I am fun. Who wants to sit beside me and laugh and count out loud and make our one inch plastic Sorry pieces have a personality as they travel around the squares on the flat board.
And time spent like that is never wasted time.
(Shame on me for thinking it was, even for a second.)
Unexpected.
What a beautiful evening it turned out to be.
