Found Time

Last year our evenings were hectic. Isabella moved in slow motion and the smallest tasks took a long time to accomplish.

This year Isabella is doing better and our evenings are smoother. I have discovered that we have what I am calling "found time" after dinner and homework is done. Time when we can relax, play a game or just talk. No rushing no hurrying, just being.

Last night I put Ali to bed at 6:45Pm, the girls got their homework and baths done, and we had found time. They were cozy in their winter jammies, working on word searches in my room as I changed the sheets on my bed and added the electric blanket. It was fun to listen to their conversation.

"Sometimes when I am bored at school I put the pencils in my mouth and bite them, and then I remember and take them out of my mouth and drink a lot of water to get rid of the germs," Isabella informs us.

GREAT! Just put those germs on a fast track to your gut!I think it, but don't say it, as I am pleased that she is at least keeping germ containment in mind.

"Ya" Emmalena chimes in, "When I am bored I chew on the erasers."

"Um, don't you all share the pencils at school?" I ask.

"Yes."

And then it comes to me. All the money we are wasting on hand sanitizers. A complete and total waste of time. As is washing the hands, coughing into your sleeve. It all makes me laugh now. The CDC is just filling us full of pipe dreams. And, I have bought into it, stalking my children, making them wash their hands the minute they get home from school (the damage was done a long time ago and already circulating through their systems by the time they get home. Who cares now?) telling them not to share cups, not to cough on each other, to take their vitamins. It's like trying to put out a fire with a straw and a glass of water. Kids are going to share germs, they are going to get sick (mine already have) and I am done being the germ police. Kids are just kids, they don't think about this stuff. I love them, but they are kind of gross.

So, I just found myself some more time now that I am off the force!