On Pie, Elf Houses and What Really Matters

This morning as I was frantically scurrying around the house trying to get as much done as possible while little Lola was napping, Katelyn declared that she wanted to make a house for our elf, Buttons.

I'm going to be honest, I felt a little annoyed. I don't have time for this! I thought.

"Please?" she pleaded.

I sighed heavily and gave her an idea, hoping she'd be able to make the house herself and I could go back to making pecan pie. Wrong. In less than 5 minutes she was back asking for help making tape bubbles. I heaved another heavy sigh. I stopped what I was doing and walked over to the table where she was coating a piece of paper with tape.

"Can you help, please mommy?"

I sat down, defeated. How would I get everything done? And WHY on the one day I needed to get everything done in two hours did she need to make AN ELF HOUSE out of paper? I could faintly hear Lola calling for me from her crib and winced. This was not how I planned my morning to go. As I trudged up the stairs I could feel my anxiety mounting ever higher. Still, after retrieving Lola from her crib, we sat down the three of us, and got to work.

And, what do you know? After a few wrong turns, we were quickly on our way to building a real, actual box out of paper and Katelyn's excitement was mounting.

"I'm going to decorate the walls, and give it a chimney and and and do you think Buttons likes to watch TV? I'll make him a TV!"

It was then I realized that this, this sitting here using up a whole roll of tape and half a dozen sheets of paper? This is what I should be doing. Who cares about the turkey brine or the pie? This little 6 year old girl before me would only find the magic of elves houses and Santa and the tooth fairy for a little while longer and I needed to sit, breathe it in and enjoy it.  And it wasn't long before Nicholas wanted his own elf house and before I knew it they were working together and complimenting one another and being kind and AAAHHHHHHHH. It was so, so nice.

And in the end, all that cooperating and kindness freed up plenty of time to get that not-so-important stuff done anyway.