Sitting down for lunch...

I've decided that I really need to sit and eat breakfast and lunch with my boys. I've discovered that it brightens my morning and my afternoon when I do.

It's easy to justify just standing at the kitchen counter to eat. Someone is going to need something, and I'll just have to get up anyway. Ben will want down from his high chair, so I'll just have to stand up and get him down. I'll just have to stand up to reach the cereal and milk anyway. Or worse, "I can just check Facebook real quick while they finish up."

But when I sit down, I see that little face above sitting across from me. I see Evan breaking his pretzels into little pieces while he tells me about dinosaurs. Seth looks up from his plate to tell me about the ice frozen in the bucket outside and how its breaking up. We get a minute to talk about how water doesn't freeze unless its below 32 degrees Farenheit while eating mac n' cheese.

I look full on into the faces of my little ones without distraction. I do it for longer than a frantic minute at a time. And I'm realizing that this face time connects me to them far more than I realize.

When I sit down to eat with my boys, I see them in their wonder and quirkiness. They talk to me, knowing that I'm not going to spin away to load the dishwasher. I get up from the table wanting to snuggle with them, wanting to talk more, wanting to read a book, realizing there isn't anything more important to do than be with them.

I won't always have that baby face in the high chair. He's growing up far too fast and talking far too much. But at least when I say, "I need a baby to kiss. Do I have one of those?," he says, "I the baby, Mommy!" Frankly, they'd all admit to being my baby right now. That's not going to last forever.

Yep, its past time to make time for table sitting.