Pull Up A Chair

I spend a vast majority...like 90%...of my time during the day in the kitchen.  Or at least it seems that way.  Filling sippy cups, getting snacks, washing hands and faces, getting snacks, making coffee, cooking meals, warming up coffee, cleaning up meals, getting snacks.  (I would like to blame all that snack-getting on the kids...but I just discovered these Ghirardelli chocolate squares at Costco, and...enough said.) 

But really, most of the time I am in the kitchen, I am cooking or baking.  I'm usually in a hurry when I'm cooking.  I'm not what you would call....a really good planner.  Like...not at all.  My mom will have meat out of the freezer at 9 AM for her dinner...but me?  At 5:00, I'm running down to the freezer to pull something out and at least get it thawing before my husband gets home, so it at least appears that I have a plan.  Yes, I definitely need to work on my meal planning, but that's another post entirely.

On top of not being prepared, I also have a 3-month-old baby who loves arms.  He especially loves them when it is time to make dinner.  So when I set him down to start getting dinner ready, I have to be in turbo mode here, folks.  I have very little time before he or someone else will need some arms, and I have to cook FAST.

And then I hear it.....the sound of the chair being dragged along the kitchen floor - right up to the counter.  The sound of little hands and feet climbing up, and the little voice (or in my 2-year-olds case, the smiley face) that says..."All ready to help, Mommy!" 

Now I would love to tell you that each time they do this, I am ready to greet them with a smile and perfect job just for them.  And sometimes, that's true.  But there are days I cringe when I hear that chair, because...I'm in a HURRY!  And at this point, most of my "helpers" are still in learning mode, and their "helping" is slowing me down.  Flour is all over the counter and something is crunching under my feet. I'm fishing cheese out of the brownie batter and trying to keep track of whose turn it is to stir what and when.  My stirring spoon is always sticky and gooey because it was dropped into the bowl.  Are you getting a mental picture, here?

So yesterday when my little Annie-girl came in to help, I was in "hurry" mode.  I was running late (because that is what I do), and I was trying to roll and cut out noodles for dinner.   She walked in from outside, said, "Oh, good!" and started dragging that chair right up to the counter.  I started to say, "Actually, honey, I'm not really needing any help right now...." but the look on her little face this time stopped me.  She just looked so darn excited.  So I gave her the rolling pin and let her take a few rolls.  Gave her the pizza cutter and let her take a few swipes.  And then...something really cool happened.

She was organizing the cut noodles for me into piles on the counter, and my mind was somewhere else.  Probably on the chicken.  Or the laundry.  Or the fact that I might only have 27 seconds until Paul needed arms again.  But from the corner of my mind, I heard her say, "And here is Moses, leading the Israelites."  Snapped back to attention, I looked down, and there it was.  Moses.  On my kitchen countertop.  Leading the Israelites.  Okay, well, kind of.  It was a big long noodle, standing in front of a huge gigantic pile of noodles.  Then she said, in her whiniest voice, "We're hungry!  We're thirsty!"  She grabbed a handful of flour and started dumping it all over the Israelites.  "Here is some manna for you!"  And again, in the super whiny voice, "We're sick of manna!  We want something else!  We are tired!  We can't go any farther!" 

At this point I am torn between laughing hysterically at this scene in front of me, and utter amazement that I could have borne a child with such a vivid imagination.  And then I realized....I almost missed this.  My lack of planning, my "need" to rush, my desire to just get it done the easy way - almost cost me this beautiful moment in time with my little girl.  A moment when I got to see her imagination at it's best.  A moment when I got to see that all the Bible story telling really is getting planted in that wonderful little mind of hers.  A moment where I got to laugh with her and let her see how much I enjoy just being with her.  A moment I will always remember, and maybe she will, too.

I'm so thankful I let her pull up that chair.

I'm sure there will still be times when I cringe a little when I hear that chair coming into the kitchen, and there will still be times when I just have to say no.  But I'm going to put this picture on my fridge to help me remember that when I am just saying "no" because I don't feel like cleaning up the extra mess or because I am too tired, I just might miss out on a moment like this.

*Picture is of Moses, leading the Israelites through the wilderness...noodle style.