Another Day! Yay!: One More Minute...

Whenever it is time for Gabriella to take a nap, eat, go to bed, or anything else that takes her away from the fun she's having, she always responds in the exact same way, "One more minute."

"Gabriella, come to your high chair for lunch..."

"One more minute."

"Gabriella, time to put away your toys and go to bed."

"One more minute."

"Gabriella, it's time to go inside."

"One more minute."

And you probably won't believe this, but one more minute is always enough. We give her the extra minute to mentally prepare herself, to keep having a good time, and then she's ready.

On Wednesday, school starts, but I will be headed back tomorrow. Although I've been back several days here and there for meetings, getting my room ready, and such, tomorrow starts the cycle.

Another school year.

I'm excited and ready to take on the responsibility of teacher and mentor to my new class. Don't get me wrong.

But I keep hearing this little voice in my head...

One more minute?

This summer, with the inspiration of a friend on facebook, the Maldonados created a summer bucket list. I remember going to the store and buying the poster board...

cutting out the shapes...

picking out the colored markers I would use...

Then, came the brainstorming part. For nearly an hour, Rick, GG, and I waded through and settled on ideas for activities we could do together. I was so excited about the list, I had t-shirts made for everyone! My idea was that we could have t-shirts made each summer as a memento for all of the things we do together.

The very first thing we marked off our list: running through someone else's sprinkler.

You might be thinking: Why didn't they say run through their own sprinkler?

Well, I thought running through our own sprinkler would be something that didn't require any level of risk taking. It's a bit uncomfortable to run through someone else's yard...through someone else's sprinkler. I think that sometimes the things in life that are the most memorable, the most fun, are the things that made you step outside of what you think is normal or routine. I'll never forget running through the stranger's yard, trying to hurry so we didn't get caught. Their neighbors coming out and watching us, laughing with us. We had the best time.

We just completed the last item on our list last night...enter a race.

It took us 51minutes and 6 seconds to walk 3 miles in a crowd of 6,000! When we started, we were behind the cop car that was bringing up the rear of the race. As we passed more and more people, Gabriella yelled "Good job!" to the racers who were already finishing. As we began the last mile, GG chanted, "Baconator!" because she knew we would be stopping for a late night treat at one of our favorite fast-food places.

My summer has been spent completing this list.

Just one more minute is what I keep telling myself as tomorrow morning draws near. I mean, GG gets it when she asks for it. Every single time, we give her that extra minute. God can move mountains, so I know He can give me an extra minute, right?

He can.

But He won't.

No extra minutes means that the minutes I do have will always count.

The minutes that I do have will always be appreciated.

So, I guess I'm going to thank God for not giving into me like I give into Gabriella. I think in the long-run my time will be richer, filled with more love, and focused on the only things that matter because for me, there will be no extra minute.

But now that I think about it, I could just be late to school tomorrow and there's my extra minute!!!

Problem solved! hahaha :)

I see God in the list that has helped guide my family this summer.