When it comes to spending time with my family, quality time, I think I'm pretty good. But an experience yesterday left me humorously second-guessing that thought for a few moments. After 5 hours of baseball practices with the boys (that's right, quality time), I pulled up my sleeves, grabbed a shovel, and started edging around all the flower beds in our yard. About an hour into the what I've labeled as the "I hate doing this," yard job, and after an amazingly few expletives had escaped my mouth, my attention shifted from the shovel to the sidewalk.
Across the street was a little girl out riding a bike with her dad. As they came closer, I couldn't help but listen to their conversation.
Girl: Dad, why aren't you doing that [referring to the hard labor I was currently employed in]?
Dad: Well honey, we have people that do that for us.
Girl: But why don't you do it?
Dad: Well it really just comes down to how I want to spend my time. And I want to spend my time with you, rather than working on our yard.
Ouch, talk about an unintended zinger. It was pretty funny though and after immediately sharing with Sierra (perhaps hoping that I would get out of this honey-do epxectation), we had a good laugh. And then I went back to a couple more hours of edging and cleaning up.
Lesson learned though--while I may not invest in yard service (although, I'm leaning there more and more each year, but the thought of five boys getting older and more capable eases that concern as well), I can still evaluate 'how I want to spend my time,' and make sure I'm spending it with those that matter most.
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