This week I’ve had a different spring break experience. Kaelyn had her first spring break. Mind you, it’s preschool, so it was only two days when she didn’t go to school. And the cold front changed the plans I originally envisioned—trips to the zoo, park, etc. But I’ve tried to be intentional about this week:

We’ve taken things slowly—We haven’t had major deadlines and schedules, so we’ve been free to take our time. Which means I haven’t been growling urging for her to get going faster.

We’ve laughed a lot—We still had errands to run, as usual, but we tried to make things fun. Example: when neither of us had the energy to go grocery shopping, though we were sitting in the parking lot of the store, we put the windows down and played and cracked up laughing for a while; and we had a snack at the Target eating area before proceeding with the task.

We’ve played—We’ve gotten together at two friends’ houses for play dates and plan to meet up with some fun cousins for lunch tomorrow. And at home I’ve tried to be less on email and take on just small chores per day (that didn’t take much arm-twisting!) so that I could appreciate games of hide and seek or pretending to be Rapunzel’s mean, fake mom (see: Tangled) or times of reading and painting.

I’ve tried to make a special effort this week to be more patient and more appreciative of spending time with Kaelyn. (In the back of my mind, I keep thinking of how our time together will change when she begins school full-time in the fall.) Each morning I’ve looked forward to waking up and seeing what we’ll get into. I continue to be amazed that my heart is so full of love for this little girl. I never imagined just how much joy I would find in being a mom.

So no big trips, no partying hard on this spring break. But it just might be one I’ll remember.