our best time together

Our best time together is at night...when I'm usually exhausted and ready for a little "me" time. I am tempted so often to want to ignore his pleas for me to read him a book or lay down with him for a little while. It is so easy to give a quick kiss and leave the room, anxious to get in my p.j.'s and have some uninterrupted talk time with my man.
But, the other night, I was reminded how important this time is to connect with Kamden and to know what is going on in his little heart. I started to read him a chapter from a new book and somehow, we got to talking about God. I'm sad that I've already forgotten a lot of the conversation because it was all good, but what I do remember is that Kamden had some really good questions and insights about God and His grace. All of a sudden, though, he said as serious as he could possibly be, "Mom, when I find a girl and she loves God, I'm going to keep her and make chicken with her every night." I can't wait to remind him of this quote at his wedding rehearsal dinner...and you can bet I will ;-) In his defense, we had chicken for dinner and he had reminded me (for the 100th time) how much he liked chicken, so I can see how his thought process connected God and chicken that night...I know, big stretch, but I'm going with it.
Back to our best time together...though it's at night, I need to arrange my day in such a way that sets us up to successfully get that special time together. Since I know this is true about him, I need to allow room in my schedule during the day so that I am not so drop-dead tired when we put the kids to bed. I find that when our schedule is peaceful and not chaotic, then I'm more willing to lay there and discuss life with him. But, this is hard for me because I really thrive on trying to "fit it all in." How many of you ladies are with me on that one? We try to have playdates with all of our friends + grocery shop + clean house + run errands + cook meals + shuttle kids to all their activities + date our hubbies...all in a week. And we wonder why we're ready to collapse by 8:30 p.m. I admit....I have a strong desire to fit all this in my schedule - and if I'm honest, I sometimes attempt to fit all of this in a day, not a week. God's been working on me for the past two years though and I feel like I'm getting healthier everyday in this regard. I also have to factor in the equation that God has wired me to be pretty high-capacity in the amount of "busy" I can take in a day. Some of you are wired to "go-go" like me and some of you would be best with just one "activity" planned in your day. The main thing is that you ask the Lord to show you what your capacity is and what is best for your family in terms of how much you go before it starts to hurt your family life. I often find myself going to Titus 2:4 during my morning quiet times to help give me direction and clarity for the "best" for my day. This is what it says, "Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."
When I slow down my "go-go" schedule, it helps me to love my hubby and my kids better because I have the necessary energy left at the end of the day to love on them and listen to them and I'm able to "be busy at home," spending time making our home a place of refuge for my family.