Basket-head mother, not I!

Sometimes, I feel like I am living with a basket on my head.

But I really enjoyed and needed to read this quote by Anna Quindle.
that Elder M. Russell Ballard quoted in his recent talk

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments

.{or if I could add: the basket-head mother syndrome} 

She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . .

 I did not live in the moment enough. 

This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. 

There is one picture of [my three children] 

sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, 

ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate,

 and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they

 looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a

hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. 

I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”

Starting today I am going to be better. 

 I never had a basket-head mother, and

 I AM NOT GOING TO BE A BASKET-HEAD MOTHER! 

 I am going to listen, love, communicate, cherish, enjoy,

 teach, preach, and prepare my children. 

There is time for everything else later.