It’s been a busy week.

Everyone had a full week at school. I was in the office 4 days.  Hubby was off travelling. And all the kids after school activities kicked in. Plus we had a little Parent Teacher Conference tucked in there as well. And a trip to IKEA for some salmon.  (Yep, really, people round here go to IKEA to buy their salmon steaks…)

Now, I’m no Tiger Mom (largely because I’m British – and so I like the right vowel in the right place – thank you – what do Americans have against the letter ‘U”?) but if my kids wants to get physical after school and there is some way to do that without it just meaning a large scale fight in our house, I’m all up for it!  So, Kung Fu, Football, Swimming – I’m with you.

Add in a little technology club, ‘film studio’ and science lab time – and what you have is me wondering how on earth I’ll ever keep up this level of entertainment for my kids as the years go on.  The kids are 7 & 5. (School hasn’t yet started providing these such delights for the littlest pickle – she feels aggrieved!)  They are officially spoilt for choice at this wonderful school.  And I am thankful for the fact that we live 2 minutes away from the place.  Otherwise this schedule would not work.

A combination of these things got me thinking this week.

It felt a bit like when I was working full time.  It felt a little bit like I was rushing from here to there, and back again… always trying to beat the clock. LIke there wasn’t enough time.

I could feel it tightening across my shoulders and my chest. Rush, rush, rush. Don’t be late…

But actually there was.  There was exactly enough time for all of these brilliant things that the little ones wanted to do.  And enough time for the food and the water that needed to happen in between.

There was enough time for me to slow down just a bit.  To say hi to the new mum I didn’t know outside Film Club.  To wait for the queue on the swings so that the middlest could show me quite how high up in the air he can get himself these days. To watch and be proud as the biggest one finally masters doing her own shoelaces on her much loved football boots.

And I made a decision.  I decided that I was going to choose to think that I had enough time. I was going to give up on this continual notion of scarcity of time.  I was just going to do the thing that was happening right then, and then move on to the next one.

It’s hard. And it’s not my natural state, by a long shot.  But I am beginning to really understand, that the days may indeed feel long – but the years. They are really short.