I had to laugh this morning when we showed up 5 min early to my cousin's 9am church when she lives an hour away. Yet, I can't get my family to our 9 am block before the opening prayer when we live only 5 min away from the building. Ironic.
But it's a fact. I can't seem to get anywhere on time.

Tomorrow is the first day of finals for Bryan. So this past week has been intense studying for his upcoming 5 tests. Which means he hasn't been home before midnight each day. To occupy all this time, I have tried to keep our family busy. We hit playgroup, storytime, crafts with friends, outings to the park, music time and preschool. But no matter what time I start getting ready, I'm always hurrying at the last minute to gather things together, put clothes on Christian or put some makeup on. It's a whirlwind of a mess. Most of the time I leave the house in a complete disaster and with an impatient attitude towards my family.
I know I nag Evelyn a lot about hurrying because the other day I heard her on her pretend phone talking to her "friend" saying, "HURRY, we are late, HURRY!"

So tonight I was physically and emotionally exhausted as I cleaned up the 2nd bowl that had been shattered in the last 24 hours when I was prompted to read President Uchtdorf's talk in the recent General Relief Society Broadcast called "Forget me Not." (this is a talk I need to read about every week) In it, he poses the question "Am I committing my time and energies to the things that matter most?" This made me think back to all the times that I impatiently tried to get my kids out of the house so we can go have "fun". Is it really fun and worth it to them if we are always in a rush? Maybe the real fun is actually in a simple walk around the apt complex or sitting on the sidewalk watching the bugs go on by.

I realize that for Evelyn and I's sanity we need to get away from our apt but I think I'm going to try to slow down a little and remember to sacrifice something good for something far greater with an eternal perspective like being kind and gentle to my kids.

does anyone else feel like they are in a mad rush to get out the door most days?
 (the sad thing is, my kids aren't even in school yet!! I'm sure it gets even more complicated when they are. I guess I need to figure out how to exit my house more efficiently.)