What Do You Do With Small Pockets of Time?

I met Anne Armstrong through an online business course we both took, and herproject really spoke to me. At the time, I was looking for ways to better balance my new career path with my kids' growing needs to connect and have my attention, so that I wouldn't feel that exhausting "guilty" feeling of missing out and not doing "enough."
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During summer vacations, my kids and I go through their school papers and pull out pieces that I'll keep, like writing assignments and impressive math tests. The real gems are random pieces of paper on which I find some of my kids' most creative work -- doodles, cartoons and one-line reminders.

To me, it's an act of capturing the moments of their lives that aren't otherwise recorded; moments that happen on ordinary school days and go unnoticed by cameras and unmentioned on social media.

My mother kept a box of my earliest doodles, short poems, school work and idea plots, and whenever I go through it, something special happens. Even though these doodles don't necessarily trigger any specific memories, they help me remember the pockets of time that usually get lumped together in larger chapters marked by birthday pictures, recitals and graduations -- pockets of time that shaped me when no one was paying much attention.

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A few years ago, I found this doodle on my son's math worksheet. He was probably in 4th grade then. I loved the heels he drew on my feet, and I chuckled at the music above my head indicating my singing career. I tried really hard to keep myself from falling apart when I realized that my son had practiced multiplication on the number of times he called to me before I responded.

"Did I respond?" I asked myself silently.

GNOME ON THE ROAM COMES TO RESCUE

I met Anne Armstrong through an online business course we both took, and her My Gnome on the Roam project really spoke to me. At the time, I was looking for ways to better balance my new career path with my kids' growing needs to connect and have my attention, so that I wouldn't feel that exhausting "guilty" feeling of missing out and not doing "enough."

My Gnome on the Roam: a Glitter and Glue Covered Revolution is her unique solution to this challenge. Anne had always known she wanted to be of service to others, do something creative and be a mom. She accomplished the first two when she became a middle school teacher of gifted children. The mommy piece was a bit more complicated.

She met her husband as she was approaching 40 and although both of them were, as she says, "on board of the Baby train," her body wasn't. So they decided to adopt. The day they were matched with a family, their baby was born.

"It was magic. Talk about life turning on a dime... I'm forever in gratitude to the birth mother who gave us the opportunity..."

Anne had waited and yearned for this moment for a long time, so when it came, she soaked up every moment of it. And still, she noticed, the time was slipping away. Because it always does.

"I just very quickly felt like I blinked and he was walking. And I blinked again and his curls were going away, and he was becoming a little man and so... I was rushing home at the end of the day and trying to squeeze dinner and laundry and time together..."

Her sister had five children at the time and Anne wondered, "How does anybody ever have quality time and maintain their sanity at the same time?"

WAKING UP TO THE STATISTIC AND DECIDING TO HELP PARENTS TO CHANGE IT

"I was just poking around and I found a statistic that said that the average family spends only less than 40 minutes per week of connected time."

Anne decided to combine her passions for teaching, creativity, and motherhood in an effort to change the situation, and channeled her energy into creating My Gnome on the Roam project. It's a children's book, activity kit, video library and an app that offers feasible ways for parents and their kids to connect and engage.

"It's yet another thing that I can't fit into my schedule," I thought. But before I could verbalize how I felt, Anne explained how this project is different:

"We wanted to inspire families to just take little pockets of time that might otherwise be wasted. Fifteen minutes is enough to blow that statistic that we just talked about out of the water."

My Gnome on the Roam is designed to provide parents with the tools and inspiration to build creativity, a sense of adventure, and to forge deeper connections. On top of which, as Anne points out, kids will have long-term benefits from this connected time with improvements in their behavior, grades, self-esteem, health and well-being.

BEING PRESENT IN EVERY BLINKING MOMENT

For me, becoming aware of how to take advantage of these 'little pockets of time that might otherwise be wasted' is a revolutionary solution. I don't have to try to make extra time, or feel bad when I'm already overwhelmed. I can just focus on what I do have.

This fits into the concept that time is experienced differently when we are fully present. When we connect in the 'now,' time doesn't seem to rush into the future, as it seems to do when we are consumed with distractions that either keep us in the past or always anticipating the next moment. And with children, it's easy to look at them, remember the days gone by and recognize that the day will soon come when they will be all grown up.

Not too long ago, at the end of a perfect and relaxing day, my teenage son came to me and sat on my lap. I held him the way I did when he was a little baby. I could feel my legs going numb under his weight.

"It seems like I blinked and you grew from a tiny little baby into a beautiful big boy," I said, kissing him on his forehead and squeezing him tightly in my arms.

"Don't blink, Mama," he said and smiled at me. We both held on to the moment.

"I'm going to blink and enjoy watching you grow between those blinks," I said. "With my eyes and my heart wide open, and my phone off."

And hopefully those pockets of time will never again be wasted or go unnoticed.

Anne Armstrong is a mother, middle school teacher and a published children's author from Nashville, Tennessee. Inspired by a statistic that revealed to her how little quality time parents spend with their children, Anne created and launched a project called My Gnome On The Roam, designed to help create stronger, happier kids, and more present and connected adults.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't receive any discounts, product or service in the process of writing this blog.

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