Are you the Queen of Multi-tasking?

I was telling my boys about a story I read. It was about a lady who was recalling with great fondness how, when she was little, her dad was always available to her. She recalled peeking into his office, so as to not disturb him. Upon seeing her, he would always say "I see you...come here..." She would run over to him, he would pick her up and place her on his lap and say, "tell me about your day". That was all she needed to start gushing about the bug that got on her, or her friend that wasn't nice to her or the ice cream she got to eat!

I always make it a point to share inspiring stories with my boys in the hope of teaching them something. I like to make them think or perhaps more accurately, get a sense of their thought process, so I asked, "What do you think?" My boys are are extremely insightful, so often times, I'm the one who ends up with the lesson and today was a perfect example of that.

I could tell Matthew was thinking and I've learned to be patient with that. Finally, he said, "That's a very nice memory she has and I was thinking that the only way a parent could do that is if they never leave things for the last minute.

I literally gasped for several reasons. One, because I am so guilty of leaving things for the last minute and I KNOW that if I'm in the middle of doing something at the last minute, I cannot afford to be interrupted by anyone, for any reason....yes, even my kids. The other reason was that I would have never thought that through to an actual action step. It was have remained a fantasy, a nice idea, but I would have never made that connection.

It made me think about the fact that when I leave things for the last minute, I don't enjoy what I am doing. I am in a hurry....in a hurry to do the laundry, in a hurry to take a shower, in a hurry to walk across the parking lot, in a hurry to get my nails done, in a hurry to do everything! This not only results in me not being to stop to attend to something my boys need, but it has also resulted in my not enjoying 90% of what I am doing and...it has also resulted in me not doing my best. How could I...when I'm in a hurry to get it done?

Multi-tasking is a trap many of us have fallen into. We even brag that we, women, can multi-task better than men. Well, I'm here to say, that multi-taksing is not all it's built up to be. Multi-tasking is, after all, the reason we lose our keys, or as we get older, the reason we leave the stove on. We are not focused on what we are doing. We are focused on our next "to do" item on out list.

I say we slow down and learn to enjoy each and everything we do. Ask yourself, "Am I enjoying this moment?" If you didn't find a close parking spot, enjoy your walk across the parking lot. Be grateful you can walk across the parking lot. If your child sees a bug they find intereseting you'll be able to stop and look at it, thereby filling their love cup vs. emptying it with "come on, we don't have time for that".

First time blogger...yeh! I did it - was a bit nervous about doing this, but here it is! I am first and formost a mom - I do a lot of other things, but I like to think my kids come first.

So, the goal of my blog is to share ways that I've filled my children's love cup, share how they fill mine (i.e., brag about my kids) and to hear how you have used this idea of filling someone's love cup to make this world a better place.

How's Your Love Cup? What! What do you mean how's my love cup? OK, let me explain. We all have a love cup and when it's full, life is good. We're motivated, we're excited about tomorrow, we do our best, we have peace, we smile, we're nice, we share.

When it's empty, we're not so happy or fun to be around. We're not motivated, we do the absolute minimum, we might feel jealous, we're rude, we're inpatient, and we might even be critical of others or throw temper tantrums. (I know, I know, this doesn't happen too often, and not to us.)

My oldest son was 5 years old when I first explained this to him. I then asked him, "So, how's your love cup?" He bent down, touched his ankle and said, "down to here...". I picked him up and told him his love cup was empty and it needed filling up with hugs and kisses. After about a minute, I asked again and with a mischievious look, he pointed to his stomach and said, "now it's to here". I told him it was still too low, that it needed to be filled up more. After about another minute, I asked again and this time it was up to his neck.

I point out the 1 minute, because that is literally how long it takes. 1-2 minutes and you're looking at someone with a full love cup. Many times, we or our children are running around on empty and we don't even know what's wrong. And as know, children, and we (although we would never admit it) will do whatever it takes to get our attention (attention = love in their mind). When they are 2 or 3 years olds, this happens most often in the form of a temper tantrum. My challenge to you is to be remembered for filling their love cup, not for emptying it. Pick that kid up and start hugging and kissing them and tell them you're filling their love cup, that you hadn't realized it was empty! They will love it, you will love it and you'll see it's like magic.