Birthday Party Prep and a Gentle Rebuke

So our little De Bella turned 3 on the 21st. It’s so hard to believe that she’s been 2 all this time! She has seemed so “grown up” lately. Probably because of the two other little squirmers who invaded our lives. 😉

Anyway, I decided to do a princess party for Ella because she LOVES all things pink, pretty, girly and princessy. 🙂 Where she got this, I cannot say because I was like the “mud princess” if anything growing up. 😉 So one afternoon a day or so before the party I was trying to get decorations hung, stuff done, goodie bags filled and so on to make it all flow easier on the actual day. I’m not so good at this kind of thing, it’s just not my forte at all. So I was feeling a little stressed out because ya know, stuff, when Ella and I sat down to fill the goodie bags for her friends. We had little slinky’s and sunglasses and various other treasures to put in the bags. I was in, “lets get er done” mode but Ella, unhampered by the “pressure” of creating a perfect party was enjoying the process. She needed to try on each pair of sunglasses before putting them in a bag. Stretch out the little slinky’s to make sure they worked, eww over the bugs and snakes that we got for the “boy” bags and aww over the bracelets and necklaces for the girls.

It was at this point when I was on the brink of rushing her through this process that a little gentle rebuke came to my heart. Here I was just trying to get through another task on my “to-do” list, and my sweet little girl was taking time to enjoy the process and make a memory worth having. I’m so glad that God tugged on my heart just then before I lost my patience and rushed her through what she was obviously enjoying doing.

I so often want to “just get through it” on lots of parts of my days. Unfortunately some of those parts involve my kids. I rush them through things, snap at them for “doinking” instead of doing and just in general make the entire situation uncomfortable for everyone. Why can’t I just take a breath, grit my teeth if I must, and slow down a bit to enjoy some of the processes with my kids?

Sure sometimes they have to be pushed a little or we end up doing school till 5pm, ugh! But most of the time I need to back off, let them do what they do, and enjoy the process with them! I think we’d all enjoy our days a little bit more if Mommy would allow everyone, herself included, to enjoy the process.

This is a life lesson I’ve been learning since I was young, and will likely be learning till the day I die because that’s the way my personality is bent. But I’m glad for those little reminders that come in the form of a pink clad “princess” with eyes full of happiness and wonder as she carries around packages of paper plates with Disney Princesses on them. She was thrilled with everything about her little party, and she didn’t care one jot if it wasn’t “perfect” in the eyes of the guests who came, or the stressed out mom who nearly ruined some perfect moments by trying to make outward things “perfect.”

Life is too short not to enjoy it as it comes.