Last week our family took a trip to Orlando. While Raul attended a conference, the boys and I spent a lot of time together. Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out why the time I spent with them in Orlando felt so different than the time I spend with them as a stay-at-home mom. I hoped that once I figured it out, I could express it in a post. I think I’ve boiled it down to two words: doing. being. When I’m at home with the boys, I do a lot: cooking, cleaning, studying, car-lining, sock-searching, Lego pick-up’ing, sneaker-buying, project-assembling, temperature-taking, etc. But when you get away, the “doing” part decreases greatly, almost vanishes. Thereby, leaving each hour in each day to just being: being in conversation, being beside each other, being present, being heard. We don’t have to be moms and dads to have a doing-vs-being convo. I would dare say this presents itself in marriages and friendships, too. I want to do better at being. I don’t want it to be limited to vacations and anniversaries. Someway, somehow, there’s GOT to be enough time in each day to “be” for one another and not just “do.” “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) I’m determined to do better at being.