Thankful Thursdays

Every once in a while, you make a decision as a parent that turns out to be the right one. A decision made without the benefit of knowing how it will turn out, how it will affect your child and what the ramifications might be can be daunting to undertake.

A while back, I made a parenting decision that I am now very grateful for. I opted to send OBB to preschool three days a week as opposed to five days a week as most of my friends do with their 4, almost 5 year olds.

Taking OBB to preschool every day of the week seemed like a lot, both for him and for me. And with MOPS happening every other Tuesday, there is no way I can be in the preschool line at 9:30 when I need to be at church at 9 a.m. to set up. So I decided he would only go three days a week.

This left Thursdays wide open. Nothing to do but sit in our pajamas all day and take it easy (sometimes pajamas stay on all the way through lunch if we so desire). And it has been wonderful.

Most Thursdays, we’ve baked something. Today, it was sugar cookies in fall shapes. OBB used pumpkin and fall leaf cookie cutters to make cookies while Baby Girl sat in her high chair playing with the other cookie cutters (Christmas ones, Easter ones, you name it, they’re all plastic and in a box that my mom has had forever, but which now resides in my kitchen.)

OBB knelt patiently in front of the oven with the light on inside watching them bake. And we all enjoyed them in their warm and mushy deliciousness when they came out.

And I was thankful…that we weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere…that we had all the time in the world to talk about baking and read the recipe and “soften” our own butter by kneading a stick with our hands. I was thankful that for at least a couple days a week, OBB is still all mine – to teach, to love on, to snuggle with, to encourage and to praise. I was thankful that I decided months ago to keep Thursdays for just us.