Taking the Time

This summer, after the first cut of hay had been baled, Dad and I worked on hauling the bales home. We usually do it in fall, but we wanted to be one step ahead this year because we are taking off for our vacation in November.


One day Brooke decided to come along with me, and we spent the WHOLE day together.
For those of you who don't know Brooke, she is one of a kind. She has an AMAZING memory (she can remember stuff better then I can sometimes :) and she is a VERY energetic and spunky little girl.
I hadn't really spent much one on one time with her before this (usually I have more then one sibling by my side :) so it was interesting to see how she opened up and was ALOT more talkative.
We had a great day.


While hauling bales, I have a lot of time to sit around, with not much to do. So Brooke and I had to be creative.
I started teaching her some BIG words (Brooke LOVES big words :)... like nationality (don't ask me how we got to that one :) she remembered it the whole day long.


We picked some flowers that were in the hay field, she was SO excited about giving them to mommy.


We talked about dog's names. And she knew the name of our neighbour's dog... not sure when I told her, but she knew!


We gave daddy a high five every time we changed vehicles (we pulled a trailer with our truck to load the bales onto and loaded them with the tractor. I would drive the tractor to the they hay field... then dad would load the bales, and then I would drive the tractor back home.... so there was a lot of switching vehicles going on :).


We watched the clouds
.
We listened to a Christian radio station that is just across the Canada/USA border. They were issuing tornado warnings, so Brooke and I had a good prolonged talk about tornadoes. What to do if one hit, if this one was close to us, how we would pray if it would happen, how silly the radio was because it kept beeping and giving the tornado warning OVER and OVER (Brooke found that overly hilarious :)... and lots of other things about tornadoes.


And of course we laughed and laughed together... just about silly girl things.


I hadn't really thought that she would remember this day very long... but I was wrong (NEVER underestimate a just-turned-5 year old's memory!). A couple days ago I had decided to let Brooke let me help her in the kitchen. We started talking and laughing just like we had that day.


All of the sudden out of the blue Brooke said to me... "Jen do you remember when we went picking bales together? And remember we heard the tornado warning over and over again, and it was so funny?"
I was surprised and said "Yes Brooke, I remember... that was fun wasn't it"
"Yup, it was fun!"


I knew that the reason she was bringing it up was because that day had meant so much to her. To me it was just another day... but to her it was special. 


I realized then that I needed to take more TIME interacting and including my younger sisters. 


For me, I find it very inconvenient sometimes to have little kiddoes underfoot when I'm trying to bake or clean. I get claustrophobic and shoo them away, because I like to have my space... and get things done quickly.
But now I realized that to the little girls it is not just baking or cleaning, but rather it is their big sister... the one they look up to.... caring enough to take the time to teach them, and to spend time with them.
And what seems little to me, may mean a lot to them.


So I will take the time to let them lick a spoon or two, and let them help out....

Because little sisters are special and this is a one time season that won't last forever.

❀ Jennifer