A New Year, a new me...

I have so many dreams for myself and my family, and I am determined that this is the year that we make a few of those dreams come true. One of my most important dreams or goals, is that I want to spend more quality time with my family, not just spend time with them. It is easy to spend time with them, after all, I am home when they get home from school right? I am spending each day with them...or am I. For instance, yesterday I made crepes for dinner. As usual, I had my MP3 player on and was listening to a book while cooking. Normally, I am in the kitchen alone while cooking, but with crepes, you make them fast and serve them up as fast as the family can eat them, and boy do they! (Who says it is only teenage boys who have a huge appetite!  When it comes to crepes, the girls can eat almost as many as the boys!) When I was down to the last crepes in the pans, I took off the player to sit down and eat with the family. As I did, I realized that I had just missed out on some quality time because I was "plugged in."  Yes, I was in the same room with them, but I wasn't really there. I had missed out on all of their conversations all because I didn't hit the pause button. Now, I am not going to give up my audio books, but I am going to be more selective about when I am listening to a book rather than my family.