being 'present'

as a mother of a tween and a baby it is necessary to multi-task. juggling doing the dishes while checking sisters homework and nursing the baby has become the routine in this house. i’ve been multi-tasking since i was a teen; basically when i had my daughter. there were a lot of nights where nursing and doing homework were imperative or i wouldn’t have finished school and my daughter wouldn’t have gotten fed. as my responsibilities grew with work and other activities, it was only natural to take on more tasks while accomplishing other tasks. i’d like to consider myself excellent at multi-tasking…

but recently i have taken a step back and analyzed what i’m missing out when i’m multi-tasking. sadly, it is a lot. though many things are being accomplished {dishes, homework, blogging, tweeting, nursing, etc} i’m not actually ‘present’. it seems as though the attention my children and husband should get from me through out the day has dwindled down to just physically being here. but mentally they need me too! it saddens me deeply to know that i am not fulfilling the needs of my family!

so with this new year i am going to make it a point to approach each task singly. when i do the dishes, i do the dishes and thats it. when i’m helping bry with her homework, i am going to just help her with her homework {not blog, text, IG, etc at the same time}, when i am nursing baby i am going to make it a point to just nurse him, in his nursery, with out distractions. that is one of the things i am most excited about because i miss the mommy and baby connection of just being ‘present’ with him. same with bry! when we hang out and watch a movie, i am putting down the phone and lap top and we are going to snuggle gosh darn it! the multi-tasking will be cut way down and i am going to enjoy my kids, my family, and life! i am going to be more present.