Slow Down

Today was an eye-opener about how fast paced my slow country life has become. It's not that I'm overly involved in many projects and just need to learn to say "no" when obligations come my way. That's not it at all. It has, quite literally, become fast. As in, running.

This afternoon I got together with a few friends who I have not seen in a very long time, and all of our children (nine of them, only two of which were boys - mine). I had so looked forward to seeing them all again, sitting down and catching up with them. I should have known how the visit was going to turn out when, within moments of us arriving, one boy dropped a very special tea set and smashed it on the patio, while another took off running towards the very off-limits pond down the hill. And so began the cycle of the day; chase this toddler back from the hill and deposit him back in the "safe zone", turn around and chase the other from the road, and so on and so on and so it went.

It was about four hours later when I realized I had not yet sat down and had barely said "hello" to my friends who were sitting around chatting together while their little girls either slept at their feet or played quietly in the yard. It was disheartening. I understand that the boys are at that age where they are curious and adventurous and want to explore and run and run and run. I understand that boys are vastly different from girls in their temperment. I really do. But when I finally gave up the fight and packed the boys into the car and drove away, having learned not one more thing about my friends' lives than I knew yesterday, I cried. Is this what the next few years will be like? Will I always be so busy running after two little ones that I barely notice all the other people in my life?

I need to slow down. I miss my friends. I miss sitting with a cup of coffee and catching up with the special people in my life. I don't like going to a family get-together and being so exhausted from chasing the kids the entire time in the no-kid-friendly zones of other people's houses that I just want to get out of there. I am missing huge chunks of my life. I know I need to slow down.

But how do you slow down when your kids are just getting faster?