The first step is either not picking up my lovie, or just letting the battery run down. Unfortunately, the latter results in an ornery husband when he can’t get a hold of me. Instead, I started to pay attention to what I was doing when I went to grab my lovie. No surprises there… procrastination!

I have always been a procrastinator. In college, I’d burn the midnight oil, printing out a research paper 5 minutes before I ran to class. While climbing the corporate ladder, I always wrote press releases better and more efficiently on deadline. Truthfully, I even cram when it comes to going to the dentist. Sure, I brush twice a day, but I once had a dentist tell me that even dentists sometimes wait to floss regularly until right before their check up.

I started a list of all the things I am procrastinating on at the moment, because the only thing better than a list is crossing things off of it! It’s very full. Cluttered really, just like the pile of clean laundry on the couch that won’t put itself away, and the piles of shoes in the garage that make coming and going take an extra 10 minutes as the crumb-snatchers search for a match.

Off to Ikea we went to remedy some of these issues. But as I was searching through the sheets for the right size/color combo, the fire alarm started chirping, and loud. My initial feeling was panic as I thought of gathering my kids and fighting our way through the maze to the nearest exit. I did a quick scan of the aisle and saw the girls. Phew. I turn around, and that panic melted away into an entirely different feeling. There was Red, with face as bright as his hair, staring wide-eyed at the emergency exit, which he had just hit as he was dancing around with the cart not paying attention. The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Ikea employees descended upon us from all around. I apologized. He apologized, and I ushered my kids towards the checkout. Coco and Crab were a giggling chorus of “Can you hear that, Red?” as the alarm kept up for a good ten minutes. Pushing my initial feelings of annoyance aside, I patted his little head, leaned over and whispered, “It’s OK Red. But when do you think you’ll stop doing stuff like that?” His response with a shrug was, “I don’t know mama, maybe never.”

That’s when I saw this bit of wisdom screaming out at me from the cover a coffee table book:

No truer words ever written. I pushed aside my initial reaction (best described as annoyance) and reacted to Red’s shenanigans with laughter and appreciation – his mischievousness, his surprise, his embarrassment, his ability to find humor in it all rolled into one adorable little package. It felt awesome to be in that moment. When we got home, he helped me build shelves to organize the shoes, and even make dinner. We chatted and laughed the whole time and the only reason I picked up my lovie was to take pictures.

Now, about that laundry…