Enjoy Every Moment

A week before I got married, someone I knew from High School wrote on my Facebook, "The day will go by so fast.  Make sure to take a second, take a deep breath, and enjoy the moment."

I remember on my wedding day... the day did go quickly.  During dinner, I did exactly what she told me.  Zach and I had just gotten our food, we sat down at the head table and I looked around.  I looked at the cabin-like room, everyone sitting at the magenta tables, eating, talking, and enjoying themselves.  I remember this moment like it was yesterday.

Here is Zach and I at our head table on August 15, 2010.

When I was pregnant I was told, "enjoy sleep, it will be along time until you will get it again."

I remember actually thinking, "How can I enjoy sleep more?"  "Do I take sleep for granted?"

And sure enough, after the birth of my son, all I could think was, "I want sleep!  Can we rewind time?  I'd be willing to be pregnant again?!?"

Which leads me to today, every mother I meet says to me, "Enjoy every moment, they grow so fast".  Part of the reason I started this blog is because I have a hard time enjoying every moment.  I don't know how to?  And I know, someday I'll do it too, I'll tell every other new mother, "enjoy every moment".

Now, maybe I'm taking it too literally and I shouldn't beat myself up, but it wouldn't hurt to find ways to enjoy motherhood more.

I started a list of things I do and do not enjoy about motherhood, and my worst fear happened.  The list of things I didn't like about motherhood was in the lead.

I started to panic.

Then I focused on what I love about motherhood and that list started to grow.

What I found was, the things I didn't like about motherhood were little irritations in my day.  When you have enough irritations, this equals a lot of unhappiness.  These little things add up very fast.

Things you love are less noticeable.  By making this list, it was easier for me to recognize exactly what moments I love during the day.  These moments became more apparent and naturally brought me more happiness.

But another list appeared.  They were not on my dislike list, and they were not on my loved list.  This gave birth to my "I can't believe that just happened, but he's so cute" list.  These things could be on my dislike list, but he succeeded in melting my heart, so I can't get upset. These moments, someday, I will look back fondly and think how adorable those moments were, and forget how irritating they were.  But, as of now, they are just as irritating as they are adorable.  As I started making this list, I started to find I have a new appreciation for these situations I'll look back to someday.

If I can change my thinking, I actually believe I can accomplish this "Enjoying every moment".  And, it's a good feeling to know the remainder of my life will be enriched by it.